Raising Jackie
by Nina Elric
Summary: Jack doesn't want to be replaced with another child, in fact, he tries to get rid of it. But when he realizes how truly incapable his parents are, he ends up raising his own little brother as well as himself. Better summary inside.
1. Life Sucks

**A/N: **Summary: Jack's mother is having another child and Jack isn't happy about it. He wants to remain alone, as neglected as he is. But after his sibling is born, Jack has a change of heart. It's basically about the impact of a new child in the Spicer household. Will his parents treat the new child the same way they treated Jack? What part will Jack play in raising his own sibling? Am I rambling? Most likely. Just read it.

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"Whore," he spat as he stomped down the stairs into his evil lair.

"Can I help you, master?" On of his Jackbots floated over to him.

"Yeah, you can annihilate that bitch upstairs," tears were welling in his eyes.

"I do not understand…"

"My mother, kill her, now!"

"I do not think you mean that, sir."

"Oh, yes I do."

Jack stomped over to his map and loomed over it in discontent. He tried to distract his mind from what he had just heard. He knew they would never tell him to his face. I would just happen and he'd be expected to deal with it. Jack sighed. He was happy as an only child. He may have been a neglected one, but he was an only child none the less. He'd be damned if there was going to be another maggot running around this house, trying to take the place he never had in his own parent's eyes. Jealously gripped him. The child wasn't even born yet and he wanted it dead. Then again, if his parents were consistent, than the kid would just end up like Jack.

"Another stellar fuck up," Jack snarled, "People like them shouldn't be aloud to reproduce…"

"Sir…"

"What are you doing here! I told you to kill her!"

"I have reason to believe that you do not really wish me to execute that command."

Jack slumped a bit. No, he didn't want to kill his own mother, but he wanted her to suffer for thinking that she could have another child when she barely gave a damn about the one she already had.

"No," he waived his hand at the Jackbot, "You're right. Return to regular duties."

"Yes, sir," the Jackbot floated off.

Having another child around was really going to cramp his evil lifestyle. He gripped the table until his knuckles turned even whiter than they usually where. He leaned and squeezed onto the side until it broke off.

"Fuck," he hissed as he held the broken chunk in before his eyes.

There would never be silence again. The crying of an infant, the pitter-patter of tiny feet… Jack wanted to barf. He could honestly feel himself retching.

"This can't be happening," he hissed, "No and it won't. Not as long as I can do anything about it."

Jack squeezed the broken piece of the table in his hand until it shattered.

"There won't be another bastard around here. Not so long as I'm still here…"

Jack broke out into his "evil" laughter. He had a plan and it would work, he knew it because if it didn't, the world would be stuck with another Spicer reject. And then he thought a moment.

"Maybe I could make it my henchman. My first real henchman!" Jack turned to his robots, "Eh, machines don't need to take breaks. Fuck that."

Jack broke out into laughter again.

"I am and forever shall be, Jack Spicer! The only fucking child! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Sir, did you take your medication?"

"What? No! Of course not!"

Jack walked off as he ranted.


	2. Jack Does His Best

He tried all sorts of bizarre things in an attempt to stop his mother from having another child. He poisoned her drink with a super virus that turned out to be nothing but the common cold. He poisoned her food with a flesh eating bacteria that didn't get very far. Jack hadn't stopped to consider stomach acids. He tried setting up a car bomb that failed to go off. He used a radiation gun he had, but neither she, nor the unborn child contracted cancer.

"Crap. Why can't I kill her? Or even it? It's not even born yet and it's stronger than me!"

"Do you really find that surprising?" one of his Jackbots asked.

"Shut up. Now, what am I going to do…"

"How about let her have the child and deal with it then," the Jackbot suggested, "Then at least your mother isn't in danger of getting poisoned to death."

"You really are a wise ass for a robot, but yeah. That makes sense. Oh, and remind me to remove your sarcasm chip, I get enough of that crap already and I don't need to deal with it from my own robots."

"Yes, sir," it droned.

After his failed murder attempts, Jack fell into a pit of utter despair. He neglected the Shen Gong Wu more and more as time went on. He figured that with his luck, his little whatever-it-was would turn out to be a fifth dragon.

"Yeah, the Dragon of Diaper Rash," Jack scoffed, "Shit, I am so screwed."

"Did you try talking to her?" the Jackbot suggested.

"No, but wasn't I supposed to remove that chip of yours?"

"Point taken."

Jack sighed. He figured he was entitled to at _least_ and explanation. Putting on his coat, he ascended the stairs out of the basement. There she sat on the couch with the TV remote in one hand and her other hand stuck in a bag of potato chips. She was showing and that pissed Jack off. He hated talking to his parents because they never seemed to realize that he was their son.

"Hey, Mom?" he sat down gently beside her.

"What do you want?" she droned at the TV.

"You… you're pregnant, right?"

She turned to him with an accusing glare, "No, I have a tumor. What the fuck do you think?"

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Jack, listen, you're older now and your father and I decided that it was time to have another child."

"You barely raised your first one!"

"That's not our fault. You were a terrible child. You didn't eat and you refused to sleep or stop crying. Raising you was a nightmare…"

Jack's jaw dropped, "So why are you having another?"

"Because the chances of having one like you again are slim."

Jack stood up suddenly.

"Fine, if you're going to have another child, then I recommend you don't let it near me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snarled.

"I want nothing to do with your new experiment…"

"Oh, by the way, Jackie, you have to get all your junk out of your room."

"Why?" Jack shrieked.

"Because that's where the baby is going."

"W-what?"

"Just move all your junk to the basement, you practically live there anyway. Oh and we're also taking money out of you college fund to pay for the baby."

"What! With all the money you have…"

"Yeah well, I figured that the money in that account was just going to sit around collecting dust so I decided to make it work."

"But…"

"Jack, you can't go to college unless you go to high school and since you decided to drop out of that, forget about your future. You don't have one."

"I…"

"Now get to work on clearing out your room."

Jack gawked at her like she had seven heads.

"Go on," she mumbled as she stuffed a fist-full of chips in her mouth.

Jack stepped between her and the TV.

"Move, moron, I'm trying to watch Opra."

Jack sighed as he walked out of the way and up the stairs to his room. What was there to move? It was fairly barren spare the computer, desk, and chair. There was a bed, but he had no idea how he was going to get that out. He looked into the vault that was hanging open. He sighed heavily at the fact that he had only the Mantis Flip Coin left. He'd lose that one soon enough. He unplugged the computer tower and moved it from the desk to the floor. Opening some of his drawers, he took out his remaining socks and underwear and piled them on top of the tower. That was it. Lifting the tower with the rest of its passengers, Jack carried it down the stairs and into his lair where he dropped it in a corner and walked over to the couch he had down there. He sat down heavily and glared blankly across the room. He always knew his parents didn't care, but it always hurt to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.


	3. Toys

Time went on. Jack's jealousy towards a child that wasn't even born yet ate away at him. He honestly didn't want to see his parents showing love and affection to some new kid when they barely cared that he existed.

His room was a pastel yellow color. It was very bright when the sun came in. A soft, white rug was laid down and a crib was erected where his bed had been. Jack sighed. Across from the crib, was a new dresser with little animal pulls on the drawers standing right where his old dresser had been. There was a toy box under the window with all kinds of happy animals painted on it. As much as all this pissed Jack off, it saddened him too.

"What _do_ little kids play with?" he murmured as he walked over to the toy chest.

Inside was a plethora of plastic toys and stuffed animals. Jack reached in and pulled out a strange toy that looked like a phone. It sang made-up songs and rolled its eyes when you pressed its buttons. As Jack put it aside, its plastic eyes rolled in its plastic face and its plastic lips moved as it said, "I love you." Jack scoffed as he dug further into the chest. He found a corn popper, a little ride-on truck, more counting toys that said they loved him, and way at the bottom, he found the simplest toy of all. A teddy bear sat at the bottom of the chest. It seemed lonely down there by itself; its glory dwarfed by the talking plastic things. Jack reached in and pulled it out. It was an old bear that seemed very familiar to him. He turned it upside down to look at its tag. Scrawled in a child's handwriting was the word: "Jack." He slowly turned the bear over and looked in its eyes.

"I remember you," he whispered, "You're Mr. Wuggles … I think Mom named you… After a commercial…" Jack paused to let his hatred settle down a bit, "Anyway, you were with me for a long time, back when people cared. I guess you're my little whatever-it-is's. Figures," he sighed, "It'll be like I never existed. Not that they ever really noticed," he looked into the bear's tiny black eyes and then at the rest of the toys, "You don't belong here," he clutched the toy to his chest as he put the rest of the toys away, "They won't know you're gone…"

Jack took the bear down into his lab where he sat it on his map table.

"Wanna help me take over the world?"

The bear just stared at him.

"Yeah, I'm kinda getting sick of it too…"

The bear continued to stare at him. Jack sighed as he picked it up off the table and sat down with it on his couch.

"It's not glamorous," he said of his lab, "But it's where I've been living for the past decade. I can't believe that I forgot all about you," he looked back down at the bear, "Hm…"

For a moment, Jack felt soft. All his anger and depression melted away. He hugged the bear gently before setting it on the floor next to the couch. Jack pulled his legs onto the couch and laid down. Looking up at the ceiling Jack's mind wandered. He felt a bit bad about taking a toy from an unborn child, but it _had_ been his first. He'd replace it, he decided. He's make a homemade toy. Jack wondered what it was that infants liked to play with. Whatever he was going to make, it wouldn't be plastic, it wouldn't smile maniacally, and it wouldn't say "I love you." The words still haunted Jack. The first thing to say it to him was a plastic, smiling phone. His heart sank. It was then that he felt so lonely. Maybe a little sibling would be a nice change in his life… Maybe he'd finally have someone to talk to…


	4. Disdain

**A/N:** Whelp, whoever reads this crap is in luck. I'm depressed, so I'm writing again. Anyway, it may not be good, but it's something.

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Deep in a subterranean lair sat a stuffed teddy bear with plastic goggles down over its eyes. Next to it was its human counterpart who held a welding tool in one hand and soldering iron in the other. The mask down over his face reflected the sparks that bounced off his current project. The sound of thresher-metal resonated throughout the room. The stuffed animal sat silently contented on the edge of the table.

"It's almost done," Jack yelled over the music, "I think it'll be pretty good. It won't tech the kid how to count or name animals, but I think it'll do the trick."

The sparks were reflected in the bear's goggles.

"Anyway, what does an infant need with talking things? It's not like it can understand them, right?"

Jack let go of the handle of his torch as the sound of something hitting the floor above him filled his ears. Putting his torch down on the table and turning down his music, Jack ran up the stairs with the mask still over his face. He moved slowly towards the kitchen where he heard his mother growling at his father.

"Take me to the hospital," she hissed as Jack peaked around the corner and into the kitchen.

"Are you sure?" his father asked stupidly.

"Yes!" she hissed.

"A-alright…"

Jack pushed the mask onto his head as he father stumbled towards him.

"Get the car, Jack," his father mumbled.

"But… I can't drive it…"

"Just get it!"

"O-okay…" Jack wandered off. As he left, he heard his father talking to his mother.

"I sent Jack to get the car…" he heard his father mumble.

"You sent _him_? He'll total it!"

"Sweetie, it's only down the road a bit…"

"It's Jack," she groaned, "He can't do anything right…"

Jack felt a flame rise up inside of him, but it quickly died leaving dying embers and smoldering ashes. Resentment and anger echoed through him.

As he pulled the car up to the front door, his father came running out of the house with Jack's mother in his arms. The man ripped open the passenger door and slid his wife inside. Jack was opening the door to get out when his father came around and tore him violently from the vehicle. The breaks were released and his father slammed the gas. Jack sat on the ground covered in the dirt kicked up by the speeding automobile. Standing up slowly, Jack tried to wipe the dirt from his coat, but to no avail.

Jack wandered back into the house and down into his lair. He looked at the pieces of the toy he was making and suddenly lost all will to ever work on it again. He glared at the stuffed bear that sat on the table beside his creation.

"I hate you," he growled.

But it wasn't the bear he hated, it was the reflection in the bears goggles that he hated. The familiar face glared back at him before melting away into sadness. Tears streaked down his dirty face; the trails left behind looked like pale veins in a wounded soul.

"I hate you," he wept.

He almost wanted to run upstairs to find a toy, press a button, and have it tell him that it loved him. Instead, he looked into the covered eyes of his childhood friend.

"You… You love me… right?"

The bear stared at him.

Jack sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve.

"What the fuck," he coughed, "Now I'm looking for approval from a stuffed animal?"

The longer he stared at the bear with its goggles over its eyes, the stronger the anger grew until Jack finally exploded. He picked the bear up from the table and gripped it firmly with both hands. He pulled at it with all his strength until one of its arms detached. Fear shot through him as he realized what he had done. Sighing, he tossed the toy aside and laid down on his couch. Looking up at the ceiling again, he let the flames of madness wear away. As an empty calm filled him, he murmured: "I hope they hate you too…"


	5. Jeremy

**A/N:** I would call this a filler/set-up chapter. It's kinda an intro to how the rest of the story will go. It may seem a little awkward, but it'll work out with following chapters.

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Two days later, Jack came home to the shrill cry of the new inhabitant of his home. His mother was pacing through the living room while his father sat on the couch with a paper in his hands and a cigar sticking out of his mouth.

"It won't stop!" his mother moaned.

"Feed it," his father suggested.

"I fed it an hour ago…"

"Hey," Jack said from the basement stairs, "I thought _it_ was a boy?"

"Yeah so?" his mother groaned.

Jack shrugged, "Try calling it 'he' instead of 'it'. By the way, didn't you name _it_?"

"Yeah," his father sighed through his cigar, "Jeremy."

Jack chuckled, "Jack and Jeremy, Supreme Rulers of the Universe. Has a sort of ring…" Jack stopped when he realized that he was even considering sharing his world domination with… with an infant!

"What was that?" his mother spat.

"Nothing…"

"Fine, smartass, you take care of it!"

Jack's mother walked over and dumped the new-born into Jack's unprepared arms.

"Holy shit," he spat, "What the hell was that?"

"Shut it up," his mother growled.

"I…" she walked away from him; Jack sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

Jack looked down into his little brother's face. It was red and distorted from crying.

"Um, hi?" Jack mumbled.

Jeremy sniffed a bit as he calmed down. Jack looked around nervously. He shifted the infant into one arm and used the other to poke him. A tiny giggle came from the scrunched up face.

"You think that's funny huh?"

The tiny fingers reached out and caught his own as he pulled away.

"huh?"

There was a distinguishable smile etched in the folds of baby skin. Jack froze; his finger caught in the hands of his little brother. He didn't know what he was feeling, but it confused him. He sighed and took the baby into the kitchen where he got a bottle out of the refrigerator and warmed its contents. Jack sat at the dining room table quietly feeding little Jeremy. As he sat in a comfortable silence, his mother entered the room.

"You… You shut it up," she noticed.

"Hm?" Jack looked up at her then back at Jeremy, "Yeah, he was hungry."

Jack pulled the bottle away a bit.

"But… I just fed him…"

Jack began to wonder how he had ever gotten this far in his life.

"Yeah," he scoffed as he shifted the infant so that he was leaning on his shoulder, "But you need to feed an infant more than once a day."

Jack tapped the baby's back softly. His mother stood in the doorway clenching her fists.

"Give me," she growled as she ripped the child from Jack's arms, "Get lost," she barked, "I don't need you telling me how to raise my child!"

"Only because you know I can do a better job than you!" Jack growled as he stood up from his chair.

"Harold!" she shouted, "Your son is being an asshole, come deal with him!"

"Don't bother," Jack shrugged as he squeezed past his mother and through the doorway, "I was just leaving."


	6. Memories

Jack paced through his lair with a face nearly as red as his hair. He was infuriated with his parents. How dare they have another child just to let it end up like him? He knew Jeremy would turn out as neglected and hated as he was. Stopping suddenly beside the pile of metal on the floor that was going to be a toy for his little brother Jack clenched his fists at his side. He looked over to the couch where his old bear sat; its arm dangling at its side by a few strands of cotton. He sighed. Opening a drawer in his tool bench, Jack dug around to find some thread and a needle. He always had those kinds of things floating around. Jack sat heavily onto the couch and took the bear up in his arms. He gently stuffed some of the cotton back into the arm and body before putting the severed appendage up against the bear's shoulder. Jack pulled the thread from the spool and slid it through the eye of the needle.

"Sorry it's black, but most of my clothes are that color. Consider it a battle scar."

Jack began to slowly reattach the arm to the bear. With each stitch, Jack's mind wondered about his own childhood. He remembered drawing primitive pictures and running through the house to find his parents only to learn that they were at some affair getting drunk and forgetting about him. He remembered nannies, lots of nannies. He remembered the phrase, "We'll be back in the morning" replacing "Good night." He remembered having no one to battle the monsters under his bed. He remembered no one telling him bedtime stories. He remembered snippets of parent-teacher conferences from elementary school. His parents were infuriated when they found out that he had to stay back in kindergarten because he was dyslexic with ADD. He remembered crying for hours when they called him a mistake. He remembered every time they called him a failure. They had said it so much, that soon enough, it came to fruition. Jack dropped out of high school and regretted doing so, but what could he do? He was in 'special' classes because he needed extra time for tests. Many a fellow student had called him retarded, but the sad part was, he was in the top of his class when he finally decided to give up. Sure he was smart, but what good is that when you can't function socially?

One memory in particular rattled through his head. It was in second grade when he made his half-hearted declaration of dedication to evil. That day was one he would never forget. They had to bring in a parent to have them talk about what they did for a living. Jack had told his father about this day, his father being an archaeologist and all, he figured that he'd have the best parent there. But Jack sat alone in the class room waiting for his father to show up. When the man finally decided to appear, he was staggering on his own two feet and smell like what his mother called 'cheap bourbon.' He was the last to present his father. Before him went a fireman, a police woman, a nurse, a doctor, a military man, a foreign affairs officer, a teacher, and many others most of who had prestigious jobs. But of course, Jack was in one of the finest private schools so everyone had an amazing parent, maybe even two. By the time it was Jack's turn to bring his father to the front, he no longer wanted to participate in the affairs. His father looked half asleep and he smelled. A cheap grin was on his lips to compliment the cheap drinks he had consumed before coming to the school.

"Jack?" his teacher called, "Would you like to bring your parent to the front of the room?"

Jack nodded slowly as he got up from his desk and lead his father to the front of the room. He turned to face the other students. Their eyes bore into him with vacuous gazes. He was the last to go. By now, the best had gone. Jack choked a bit before speaking.

"This is my dad…"

"And I thought it was your mother," one of the boys laughed. His mother nudged him in the side and the teacher glared at him.

Jack smiled a bit as he continued.

"My dad is an archaeologist. He travels all over. He finds things like bones and old pots and jewelry," Jack was getting so excited as the look on his peers faces lit up, "One time, Daddy found a dinosaur bone! Right, Dad?"

Jack looked up to his father who was leaning on the chalk shelf attached to the chalk board.

"Huh? Oh yeah, dinosaurs," he chuckled.

"What dino was it, Daddy?" he could hear various snickers coming from all throughout the room.

"Uh…" his father reached up and lazily scratched his head, "Something."

Jack's smile faded.

"Your dad looks like a drunk to me," that same boy teased. Once more his mother jabbed him and the teacher glared at him, but Jack knew he was right. His father _did _dig up bones, but Jack realized that his dad was only cool when he was working. Other than that, he had that perpetual alcoholic smell to him. Jack wanted to cry.

"Well, um, Mr. Spicer," his teacher tried to help a bit, "Tell us about one of you expeditions, will you?"

Jack's dad turned to the teacher.

"Want me to tell you about one, huh?" the teacher nodded, "Well, there was this one I took Jack on."

Jack's heart froze; he knew what his father was going to say.

"We were digging around in southern Italy when I found a beautiful Roman bowl. The pictures were so vivid and clear cut for a bowl as old as it was. Jack here," he rested a hand on Jack's head, "Was pestering me to let him hold it. When I told him it was old and delicate and that handling it wouldn't be a good idea, he began bouncing around and tugging at my leg. I tried to walk away from him, but he grabbed me around the legs," he patted Jack's head, "Needless to say, I dropped the bowl in an attempt to regain my balance," he smiled as he glared at Jack, "It shattered into a million pieces and this whelp," he chuckled, "Got the bright idea that he could glue it all back together with Elmer's Glue!"

The children in the room broke out with laughter; some were too embarrassed for him to say anything."

"Oh," Jack's teacher mumbled a bit, "Have there been… any _good_ experiences with you and Jackie?"

"Well…"

Jack's father went on about the time he was diagnosed with ADD and how he had to take medication to get through the day. The fact that he never stopped crying when he was an infant. The time he chewed on a cast bone that was sitting on the kitchen table. All the times Jack did something wrong, the class learned about them all.

They laughed. They all laughed. Jack began to hate his father. He began to hate the other children in the classroom. He began to hate their parents for being so much nicer than his. Standing there before the rest of his class he vowed that one day he's make them all pay for ever laughing at him.

Jack was torn from his memories with a stabbing feeling in his finger. When he looked at it, the needle had penetrated his flesh. Blood pooled out around the tiny metal lance. Jack actually had to pull the needle to get it out of his finger. Putting it aside, Jack squeezed his finger so that the blood ran down his finger, getting caught in the various lines in his hand. He made a fist and when he opened it again, most of his hand had at least a light coating of blood. Some of it pooled in the lines that crossed his palm. Jack stared at his bloodied hand; the red liquid still oozing from the wound in the tip of his finger. Jack sighed as he brought his hand to his lips. He reached out slowly with his tongue and cleaned the blood from his hand and fingers. A weak sigh slipped from his body as he picked up the needle and bear once more and finished sowing its arm back on.


	7. Who Cares

**A/N:** Time discrepency. Okay, I didn't include it in the outright chapter and I'm not about to redo the whole damn thing to add it. This takes place a few months after the last chapter. Probably about three or four. If I made a chapter for every day of Jeremy's life, _I_ would have no life. So yeah, this isn't like a 'next day' chapter. Sorry for any confusion!

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Screams. Shrill, colic cries woke Jack in the middle of the night. He wasn't sleeping very heavily as of late, so even this tiny noise disturbed his rest. Throwing his sheets aside, Jack slid off his couch and wandered up the stairs. Standing beside the stairwell, Jack heard the sound of his infant brother screaming at the top of his lungs. He growled in frustration as he ascended the stairs. Walking down the hall, he entered his parent's bedroom.

"You guys wanna help that kid or something? Maybe just kill him right now and spare him the pain of existence?"

Jack rubbed the sleep from his eyes only to find his parents' bed devoid of life. Jack's eyes widened as he ran down the hall to where the screams were coming from.

"Jeremy?" he panted as he slid into the doorway.

Turning on the light, fear shot through Jack's body. A tiny flailing mass was beneath a single sheet. By what Jack could tell, the infant was laying face-down in the crib.

"Oh shit," he gasped as he ran in and ripped the tiny form from the bedding.

Vomit was soaking into the mattress where the baby's head had been. The poor thing had been suffocating in its own puke. Jack wrinkled his nose at the smell of rancid milk. He'd clean that later, but first he had to stop Jeremy from crying. Resting him on his shoulder, Jack carried his little brother downstairs to the kitchen. He sat Jeremy down on the counter as he ripped through the fridge in search of a bottle. He slammed the door and opened the freezer. After taking almost everything out, Jack still couldn't find a bottle. As he stood up, he looked down the counter. Sticking up over the rim of the sink was the baby bottle nipple. Jack slammed the freezer door shut and walked over to the sink. There sat apparently the _only_ bottle his parents had bothered purchasing for Jeremy coated in baby formula from the last time it was used.

"Oh my god," he pulled the nipple off the bottle and put it under hot, running water from the faucet.

As the water washed through the bottle, Jack took Jeremy into the dining room and sat him in his high-chair. Jack ran into the kitchen and came back out with a warm, damp cloth that he used to wipe Jeremy's face.

"Feel better?"

The screams had been reduced to simple whimpering. Jack sighed with relief. As he trudged back into the kitchen, he caught sight of oven clock. It was nearly three in the morning. Where the hell were his parents? Jack scrubbed the inside of the bottle before mixing some fresh formula and heating it in the microwave.

"Here we are," Jack mumbled as he came back into the dining room, "Nice and warm. It should settle your upset tummy…" Jack cringed a bit as he lifted Jeremy from the high-chair.

Wandering into the great room, Jack fell into one of the upholstered arm-chairs. He fidgeted a bit before positioning Jeremy in his arms and gave him the bottle. Jeremy took the bottle and slowly drank from it. Jack felt himself falling asleep again, but he fought back the exhaustion for fear of drowning the infant with baby formula. He took the bottle out of Jeremy's mouth for a minute before putting it back in. The repetition in the whole affair left Jack at the mercy of his own will. More than once did his close his eyes and forget to open them again. Once the formula started dribbling down Jeremy's chin instead of into his mouth, Jack took the bottle away and put it on the floor beside the chair. Putting the child over his shoulder, Jack tapped Jeremy's back until he burped a bit. As he supported Jeremy's bottom, he felt the diaper get warm. Jack cringed as he realized that his duties would go further than simply feeding the infant. With a terrible sigh, Jack pried himself from the comfortable chair and carried his brother back up into his room.

The room still smelled of rancid milk, but Jack tried his best to ignore it He gagged a few times, but that was it. Resting Jeremy on the floor, Jack went into the closet to get out the changing table. With it he retrieved diapers, wiped, and baby powder. Jack set the changing table up next to the dresser so that he could put the other things down where he could easily get at them again. Jack pulled the garbage can in the room over to where he would be working. With another exhausted sigh, Jack picked up Jeremy from the floor and rested him on the changing table.

"Oh crap," Jack gagged as he opened the diaper, "Gah!" he jumped back, "That's lethal! Oh my god! Geeze, I wish I had you a few months ago. I doubt the Xiaolin losers could've taken a blow of this stench. God! Ugh…" Jeremy was giggling.

Jack slowly approached the situation again.

"W-what are you laughing at?"

Jeremy squirmed a bit on the table; his wide toothless smile beaming at Jack.

"You… You like me?"

Jeremy clumsily clapped his hands together.

Jack looked around for what else could be making the child so happy. He spun around completely before realizing that he was the only form in the room.

"Oh," Jack rested a finger on his lips, "I, uh," Jack looked around again, "Ah…"

Jack looked back at Jeremy to still find him lying in a soiled diaper.

"Let's just get you clean for now, shall we?"

Jack cleaned and removed the soiled diaper completely throwing it immediately into the garbage pail. After applying some powder, Jack reapplied a new diaper to the infant's bottom.

"That's better," he sighed, "Now for you bed."

Jack set up a playpen in a corner of the room and placed Jeremy inside of it.

"Just hang out here for a while. I'll clean your bed up so we can all go back to sleep."

Jeremy just sat in the pen gazing up at his brother.

"Yeah," Jack mumbled before tackling the crib.

He took out all the sheets and removed the mattress pad. The mattress itself wasn't bad, but Jack took it out anyway. He threw the sheets into a laundry basket and got some sanitizer from the closet. He wiped down the mattress pad and leaned it up against a wall to let it dry. He sprayed both sides of the mattress with some other sanitizer before leaning it against the wall next to the mattress pad. Jack took the back from the garbage pail and the laundry basket with the sheets and ran downstairs for a minute or two. In that short time, Jeremy had started crying again. Jack felt se weak as he jammed the sheets into the washer and added some detergent. He slammed the top shut and started the washer before running back up the stairs with the bag of garbage still clenched in his fist. He ran back downstairs and disposed of it in the main garbage before tackling the stairs once more. As soon as he stepped into Jeremy's room, the crying came to an end.

"What?" Jack panted as he looked around, "What's wrong?"

But there Jeremy sat, just as Jack had left him, in his playpen with a silly toothless grin on his lips. Jack sighed once more. He wouldn't be done until the crib was reassembled, but he still needed to let the mattress air out.

Jack walked into the middle of the room and laid down on the carpeted floor. After all the work he had done, the rug actually felt as comfortable as a real bed. Jack let his eyes slide shut until he heard the sound of baby whimperings. Jack squeezed his eyes tight before opening them again. Across the room, he saw Jeremy reaching out to him from inside the playpen. Jack just looked at him as his mind processed the situation. Jack peeled himself from the floor and crawled over to the playpen.

"I don't want to take you out of there," Jack explained, "It's too dangerous."

Jack laid down again beside the playpen. He was just letting the exhaustion settle in once more when he slowly opened his eyes to find Jeremy lying beside him on the inside of the pen. Jack blinked lazily before finally drifting off to sleep.


	8. Nobody Understands

**A/N: **This _is_ a next day chapter. It's kinda short, but I think it works.

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Sunlight drifted into the room through a curtained window. The light and warmth from the sun stimulated sleeping eyes. Jack opened his eyes slowly. A beam of light carried dust bunnies galore. He smiled softly as he remembered where he was. His body was wrapped around the corner of a playpen. Beside him, he felt the soft and deliberate breathing of his little brother. Jack looked over to the sleeping form and his smile grew. He felt like Jeremy was his. After all, since he was born, Jack had done a majority of the work to care for him. As good as it made Jack feel, it hurt him to realize how soft he had become; not that he was ever hard. He knew he never really knew how he felt on the inside. But now, now he felt wanted and that gave him a purpose. It was probably the purpose that made all the difference. Up until Jeremy, Jack had no real purpose I the world. He loved Jeremy and he knew Jeremy loved him. Jack let his eyes slide shut again.

A heavy pounding sound met Jack's ears. In an instant, Jack was sitting up straight. He knew that sound; his parent's were home and his father was heading towards the room. Jack jumped to his feet. The mattress and pad were still leaning against the wall. Jack ran to the closet and pulled out a set of sheets. The soft sound of Jeremy cooing made his heart beat even faster. Jack threw the mattress into the crib and arranged the pad on top of it. He heard the footsteps pause a minute somewhere along the hall. Jack got the contour sheet onto the mattress and was tucking in the loose sheet when the door to the room flew open. Jack spun around violently.

"What are you doing?" his father growled.

"I…" Jack's eyes drifted to Jeremy. There was a look of what Jack could have sworn was fear locked in the child's face.

Jack's father followed his gaze to find Jeremy sitting in the playpen.

"What's going on?" his father asked accusingly as his gaze returned to Jack.

"I… He got sick last night…"

"Probably because you were in his room…"

"I wasn't. he was crying and… and I was waiting for one of you two to take care of him. When you didn't… I-I came up a took care of him myself, like usual…"

"Jack!" his father bellowed, "We told you we were going out last night…"

Jack tried to remember the day before. He remembered various instances of changing diapers and feeding Jeremy, but nothing about his parents telling him they were going somewhere.

"No you didn't!" Jack yelled.

"We left a note on the basement door…"

"I didn't see a note…" Jack growled.

"Well, it was taped to your door as plain as day!"

"On which side?"

"The outside!"

"Well that's why I didn't see it!"

"That's not an excuse, Jack. We told you we were going and we told you to take care of Jeremy!"

"What's going on?" his mother babbled as she arrived beside his father in the doorway.

"I came in here to find Jack ransacking his brother's room…" his father pointed a Jack.

"I wasn't…"

"Jack!" His mother screeched, "How dare you?"

"I was cleaning!"

"That's not what it looks like to me," his father growled.

"Well you must be blind!" Jack screamed.

Jeremy began to yell at the top of his lungs.

"Now look what you've done," his mother growled as she entered the room and lifted Jeremy from the playpen, "He doesn't like you, Jack."

Jeremy was turning red as he screamed in his mother's arms.

"Come on, Jack," his father sighed, "I can't believe that you would go as low as to destroy your brother's room."

"I didn't!" Jack bellowed.

"Just go," his father pointed out the door, "apparently we need to get nannies for Jeremy like we did for you."

"And I thought we raised a capable son," his mother shook her head.

Jack squeezed his hands into fists.

"No, you know what you raised?" he growled through clench teeth, "A human being a dysfunctional as the both of you!"

Jack shoved them aside as he left the room. Half way down the hall, he paused to look back. Jeremy was still screaming over his parents voices. His mother was trying to calm him down while his father was going on about their failure of a son. Tears welled up in Jack's eyes.


	9. Walking

It was another one of those days. Jack was home alone with Jeremy while his parents were out at some lawn party. Jeremy sat in the middle of the floor in the great room, playing with some blocks Jack had found for him. The older boy had never finished the toy that was meant for his little brother, but he figured that changing diapers was a good enough exchange for a teddy bear. Jack sat on the couch watching his brother closely. The dark rings around his eyes were finally beginning to fade now that Jeremy was sleeping again. Even though he was finally getting sleep, Jack was still tired. The distant memory of war between good and evil echoed through his mind. He had given that up to raise his brother, but now that Jeremy was nearly walking, Jack wanted to be on his own again. He wanted to have the power of the Shen Gong Wu with him once more, but he feared that coming back into the game this late would leave him with nothing to fight for. Not that he ever had anything to fight for in the first place. The sun shined in through a skylight high in the tall ceiling and bathed Jeremy in a soft, golden glow that lit up his pale complexion.

"Hey, buddy," Jack murmured, "Wanna try walking again?"

Jeremy turned to Jack with a goofy smile in his violet eyes.

Jack stood up and walked over to his little brother.

"Okay, you remember the deal," Jack crouched down and took Jeremy's arms, "I hold you up, you move those little legs of yours."

Jack lifted Jeremy up so that he was on his feet. Jeremy wobbled a moment before steadying his balance.

"Okay, now, walk," Jack said softly.

Putting one foot forward, Jeremy began to move. Jack walked with him a bit as he wobbled forward. After they got a good distance, Jack let go and Jeremy was on his own. He wobbled a bit at first, threatening to fall, but Jeremy Spicer wasn't going down easily. He made it to the far wall before leaning on it to turn around to face Jack.

"You gonna come back?" his brother smiled.

Yeah, he was coming back, but to him, his brother looked miles away. He leaned back against the wall and reached out for Jack to come and get him, but Jack just shook his head and smiled. Jeremy was about to cry, but Jack just shook his head and smiled once more. When he realized the big brother wasn't coming to get him, Jeremy decided to try walking back. He pushed himself from the wall and struggled to catch his balance. He moved forward slowly; methodically putting each foot before the other. Jack smiled as his little brother made his way back to him. At about half way, Jeremy fell down. Jack just smiled, but Jeremy wanted to cry.

"It's okay," Jack walked over to him, "You did very well."

Jeremy sniffed and reached up to his brother. Jack mussed his dark brown hair before lifting him into his arms and carrying him into the kitchen.

"You hungry? 'Cause I am," Jack set Jeremy down in his highchair.

In the fridge, Jack found a small jar of broccoli, carrots, and cheese baby food. He took it out and showed it to Jeremy.

"Is this good?" Jack asked.

Jeremy clapped his hands and laughed.

"Okay, lemme get a spoon."

Jack moved Jeremy and himself into the breakfast nook where he opened the jar and began feeding his brother.

Jack always made strange faces when he fed his brother. Jeremy loved it. His big brother always seemed to make him laugh.

Jeremy had officially become Jack's child a few months ago when his parents realized that Jeremy would only let Jack hold him without screaming at the top of his lungs. Like Jack, they cast him aside, but Jeremy never felt neglected or alone. His brother would do anything with him. Jeremy had yet to figure out what exactly he liked to do, but he _did_ know that as long as he was with Jack, he was happy.

Once the jar was empty, Jack rinsed it out and tossed it in the garbage. Jack lifted little Jeremy out of the highchair and set him back down on the great room floor.

"I think I need a nap," Jack yawned, "But I'm still hungry."

Jack left for a moment and came back into the room with a pudding cup. Jeremy stared at him like he had multiple heads.

"I know," Jack sighed as he opened the cup, "These aren't any good for me."

Jack sat on the couch and slowly ate his pudding.

Jeremy sat in the center of the room thinking. Jack was happiest when he was walking. Jeremy liked seeing his brother smile. So, this 'walking' entailed him standing on these 'legs' and moving around with them. Jeremy thought a moment before making his move.

Jack watched the dust settle down from the rays of light from the skylights. They floated and drifted carelessly to the ground. Jack became mesmerized by these simple motions and allowed himself to zone out of the world and into another far off place. He spaced out so much, that the cow that appeared before him made him jump a bit.

"Jeremy," he sighed.

Standing before him was Jeremy with a block in his hands. The smiling cow was facing Jack. The older Spicer boy sighed.

"What's this?" he said as he took the block away.

Jeremy walked back over to his pile of blocks and brought another back with a rooster on it.

"What the…" Jack took the block and Jeremy went back for another.

As the younger boy came to him again, Jack dropped his blocks to the floor and lifted his little brother into the air.

"You're walking!" he shouted, "You're walking! For real! This is amazing! I can't believe it! All by yourself! Oh, Jeremy! All by yourself!"

Jeremy smiled in his brother's arms. The Spicer brothers were always happy when they were together.

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**A/N:** Senachan141 asked about an image of Jeremy. I cannot draw and no one I know looks like him. As a result, I was wondering if someone here who is half-way descent in the art department could draw an illustration for the story. It could be Jeremy or Jack and Jeremy. I don't care. I've described him in this chapter so you would have something to go on: purple eyes, pale skin, and dark brown hair. If you _do_ choose to make an illustration, please make sure you remember that Jeremy belongs to me and you will allow me to post this picture at my descretion. If you have a DeviantArt account or something of the like, feel free to post it there too, just remember to give me some credit for the subject. I _will not_ take credit for the illustration, only the character. Everyone knows that I can't draw anyway, so it would look pretty weird if I all of a sudden turned out a master piece. PM me if you want to give it a shot. Thanks!

**Also:** I _will_ be turning up the rating in a few chapters for reasons of self mutilation.


	10. Of Dragons and Depression

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long. I've been down and out with a wicked sinus infection. More info than you needed, I know. Anyway, thanks for your patience. Chapter 11 should be up shortly after this one. I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and the offer to draw me a picture still stands. The details are at the end of the last chapter if you need to check them out. I've gotten one pic and quite a few offers. Basically if you want to do it, just do it and let me know when you're finished so I can check it out. I'm still waiting to see what some of the other pics look like. I'll post links on my homepage as I get them.

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The television screen flickered across the pale face. Red eyes stared blankly at the nonsense that people called news. With a sigh, the images disappeared and the light that filled the room disappeared. Rolling over, he shut his eyes in hopes of getting some sleep. His life had been devoid of true rest for almost four years now. His over sensitive senses were always listening for the sound of a crying child somewhere in the house. A cat mewed near the vent into his room and he sprang from the couch. It mewed again and he went over to the vent and looked out into glowing green eyes.

"Meow," he murmured as he shut the vent.

With a heavy sigh he moved back to the couch and collapsed back on to its cushions.

As his eyes once more threatened to close, the sound of clattering metal made him shoot up from his rest once more. His eyes scanned the dark room to find nothing. Reaching for the light beside his head, he pulled the cord and a ray of light filled the basement. In the far corner of the room was a pile of scrap metal that had once been securely locked in a disposal unit. He couldn't really see anything more than scattered shadows on the metal pieces. With another sigh, he reached under the couch for a flashlight.

"If you got in again, Mittens, I'm going to turn you into one of my robots. Then you'll at least be useful."

Staggering over to the pile, he crouched down to examine it. A small sound met his ears. Looking around with the flashlight, he saw no one else in the room. His eyes settled back on the metal pile. He reached out to begin picking it up when the pile moved on its own. He instinctually withdrew his hand. Once his heart was calm again, he reached out once more and the pile burst open.

"Jack!"

With a screech, he fell backwards onto his backside. The flashlight momentarily escaped his grasp. All he saw was a figure standing in the middle of the metal refuse. He reached out for the flashlight and drew it in to himself. Fumbling with it in search of the switch, he pointed it at the mass and the light shined out.

"Jeremy," he sighed, gripping his chest, "What are you doing?" he breathed.

"I came down to look around and I found this cool thing," Jeremy pulled a metal object from the rest of the pile, "You never showed this to me and you've shown me everything, but when I tried to climb up to get it, I slipped and the lock came off the disposal unit."

"Are you okay?" Jack reached out to him.

"I'm okay, I think. I got a booboo on my knee from when I fell, but I think I'm okay."

"Good. You know you can't be down here when I'm not…"

"But you were…"

"I was asleep!"

"You're eyes were open. I said 'Hi' and you just ignored me."

"Huh?"

"You sleep with your eyes open a lot. It's really kinda creepy."

"Force of habit," Jack sighed as he ran his fingers through his red hair.

"So, what is it?" Jeremy asked as he offered his brother his findings.

Jack took the piece from his brother and examined it intently. He quickly remembered what it was. He hadn't seen this thing since Jeremy was a little baby.

"It's a toy," he explained.

"Looks like one of those Hoberman's Sphere thingys."

"Yeah, well, watch."

Jack turned it over and pressed a button on its bottom. A light inside of it shone through the thin metal as he rested it on the floor.

"Dog," he said.

The ball of metal responded by shifting the many metallic bonds that held it together until it was standing on four legs with a wiry tongue sticking out of its mouth.

"Ruff," the sound was metallic.

"Whoa!" Jeremy picked it up in his arms, "That's cool!"

"I made it for you along time ago. I just guess I never got around to actually giving it to you."

"What else does it do?"

"Why don't you figure that out on your own, hm? I need to clean up this mess."

"Okay."

Jeremy ran over to the couch and played with his new toy.

Jack sighed. He was so happy to see his brother enjoying something he created. Jeremy never was a very big fan of his robots. Jack didn't blame him. Less than a year ago the poor boy almost got shot up because a Jack-bot mistook him for an intruder. Jack still had scars from where the bullets when into his flesh as he tried to stop the gunning robot. After that, Jack decommissioned all his attack style bots, spare two. Chameleon and Robo Jack occupied a large closet in the back of the basement. Jack didn't want to get rid of them, but he didn't wan Jeremy to ever find out about them. There were times when Jack was too tired to even take care of himself. Times when painful depression took hold. Those were the times he activated Robo Jack. Jeremy barely saw a difference and never seemed to assume that it wasn't actually his brother. It looked a bit younger, but that was it. Chameleon was a work of art. He'd probably end up selling it to the highest bidder. He knew plenty of people who would put money into advanced robotics like that. Once the last piece of scrap metal was back in the vault, Jack locked it and walked over to the couch where his brother sat.

"Look," Jeremy shouted, "Dragon!"

Jack watched as the wiry metal went from a bird to a snake-like dragon with fore claws, big round eyes, and a furry maine. Jack scrunched his nose in disgust.

"Isn't that cool? Jack? What's wrong?"

"I need to reprogram it," Jack tore the toy from his brother's hands.

"What's wrong with it?" Jeremy slid off the couch to follow him.

"The dragon program is corrupt."

"It looks like a dragon to me…"

"No! Dragons have four legs and wings!"

"Not China dragons! They look like that and they fly! Without wings!" Jeremy explained excitedly.

"How do you know that?" Jack spat.

"I saw one!"

Jack spun around to face his brother. His red eyes were on fire.

"What?" he hissed.

"One flew over the house. Actually, I've been seeing it a lot lately. It's really cool. I think Dad brought it home form China…"

"What did it look like?" Jack seethed as he crouched down to face his little brother.

Jeremy tried to back away from his brother, but Jack firmly gripped his shoulders. The older boy was beginning to scare him.

"Uh… Green… I think… That's all I could tell. I meant to ask Dad about it…"

"Don't!"

"Why not?" Jeremy wanted to cry.

"I'll deal with it. When do you see it?"

"Well, sometimes it flies by late at night. Like, right around this time. It goes by my window a few times before leaving. I sometimes see it in the middle of the day, when I'm outside, but that's it."

"Has it ever come near you?"

"Other than going by my window at night sometimes, no."

Jack stood up. Slamming the toy on a workbench, Jack opened a closet and pulled out a long black coat and a strange looking backpack.

"What's that?" Jeremy asked.

"A side of me I never wanted you to see."

He strapped the backpack on and went to the deepest, darkest part of his lair.

"JACK-BOTS!" he bellowed as threw a switch that turned on a painful fluorescent light, "Decommission override: V6294D. Authorization: Jack Spicer. Activate annihilation mode!"

"Jack," Jeremy tugged at the bottom of his coat, "Why are you turning them on again?"

"I left them alone and they have the audacity to come around here. What the fuck do they want with me now?"

"Jack," Jeremy whimpered, "I don't like it when you say those kinds of things… It scares me."

"Prepare to attack. Arial formation C. Stand by," Jack shouted as he walked off to the bathroom.

"Jack," Jeremy followed him, "What's going on?"

"I'll make them pay for snooping around my home," he opened the vanity and took out a container of liquid eye-liner.

"Jack? Why are you doing this?"

"They haven't seen me in years and they come around now. Probably to accuse me of stealing something they lost on their own," he put the bottle away and took out a canister of hair gel.

"Jack, please tell me what you are going to do…" Jeremy was nearly in tears.

"I wanted to forget about them… I wanted to leave all that shit behind…" Jack put the gel away and reached into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a pair of yellow plastic goggles.

"Jack…" Jeremy cried.

When Jack spun around to finally face his brother, Jeremy stared at his new façade.

"Jack…" he breathed as he choked back tears, "Did I… do something wrong?"

"No, Jeremy," the red eyes softened and a familiar smile crossed the older boy's lips, "_They_ did."

"Who are they?" Jeremy cowered in a corner.

"Bad people. But I'm gonna take care of that right now."

"Are they really that bad?"

"Bad enough."

Jeremy's violet eyes were bugging out of his head.

"I'm scared, Jack. Can I go back to my room?"

"No, you stay here, I'm going up to your room."

Jeremy watched the bottom of Jack's coat sway as he walked. He was afraid of what his brother was going to do.


	11. Nightmare

**A/N:** Listen, this chapter is a gory mess, but I really don't want to raise the rating. Unfortuneately it looks as though this is going to be a lot darker than initialy intended. I'm sorry. If the first few people who get to this don't mind, could you please tell me if I can no longer fudge this as being rated only T. I was going to turn it up in a few chapters anyway, but I feel like no one reads that M stuff and I want this to get read. So, unless you tell me to, this story will remain being rated T with various warnings for each chapter that a warning is necessary for. Thanks so much.

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The moonlight shone into the dark room through the lone window. It stretched across the floor to the far wall making the room fill with a silvery glow. A black boot would cross the threshold where the moonlight ended and the darkness began. Red eyes glowed in the shadowy darkness. The form sat on a bed as it bounced its foot in and out of the light. Words of fury dribbled from its pale lips. It was waiting. Waiting for the dragon to appear again. The light moved through the room as the moon moved through the sky. Jack sat like a man possessed watching the light on the floor. He slowly rocked himself until there was a moment when the light disappeared. Jack jumped to his feet, threw open the window jus in time to grab the furry end of the dragon's tail. There was a jolt as he was almost torn out of the room. The forms on the dragon's back looked back at him, the moonlight casting shadows on their faces. Jack grinned madly as he pulled on the scaly tail.

"What was that?" the dragon shouted back at its passengers.

"Jack…" one of them hissed as they jumped to their feet.

Four masses stood up and ran down the dragon's back until they were at the window. Grabbing the top of the pane, then first swung through the open window, kicking Jack in the jaw and sending him sprawling to the floor.

"What are you doing here?" the fiery eyes hissed.

"Where's that other kid?" one of them asked, "The one who lives in this room?"

"Jeremy?" Jack chuckled as he wiped the loose saliva from his chin.

"What did you do with him, you dirty snake?" a large hand gripped the collar of Jack's jacket.

"I didn't do anything to him," Jack growled, "You're the intruders! Why are you here?"

"We've come to get back the Wu you've stolen!" Jack grinned in the direction the voice came from; a pigtailed shadow looked back at him.

"Wu?" Jack chuckled as he pushed the hand that held him away, "I haven't had any Wu for years. I lost them all to you. My heart was never really into it anyway…"

"Your _heart_?" The hand was around his collar again.

"Look," Jack pushed the hand away again, "I have no Wu so you have no reason to be here. It's been, what, almost four years since the last time I came around bothering you? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"We saw you, Jack. We saw you running off with out Wu. You've been coming around sporadically for the past few weeks. We aren't stupid!"

"What?" Jack spat, "Unless I've been sleep walking, there's no way…"

"Don't fuck with us, Jack. Give us back our Wu and we'll leave you alone."

"I don't have any Wu!"

Jack bucked the large form from his body.

"JACK-BOTS, ATTACK!"

A swarm of robots burst into the room; tearing the door from its hinges.

A battle between men and machines waged before Jack's eyes. The exhilaration of watching such a battle first hand built up inside of him until it boiled over in maddening laughter. Jack laughed as his machines were annihilated.

Charred walls and cracked ceilings. Broken lamps and torn up rugs. A toy chest was turned over and nearly blown to pieces. Jack didn't see the mess, all he saw was a snapshot of the days before his parents abandoned his brother to him. He laughed and made empty threats. He felt hollow inside. It was a familiar lonely feeling. He wanted to make them suffer for making him hurt like this. He had been free of the self injuring emotions for long enough that their return was violent and painful. Anger, hatred, sadness, pain, depression, and mania returned in a wave of spirit crushing power.

As the last bot was disposed of, Jack turned to find his little violet-eyed brother standing in the doorway. A look of shear terror was etched in the boy's pale face as he stood frozen in the doorway. Jack's love for his brother clashed with his need to dominate and control. His manic look softened as his brother turned to look him in the face.

"Jeremy," he whispered.

"Fine, if you won't give us the Wu, then we'll take your little minion until you change your mind," a large form came over and lifted Jeremy from the groung.

"N-no!" Jack shouted, "I-I don't have any Wu! Put Jeremy down!"

"You'll get your spawn back when we get our Wu back."

"But… I don't have any!"

"We know you do, Jack."

"Jack," Jeremy mumbled through his paralysis.

"I don't!" Jack bellowed weakly, "Please, I don't have any Shen Gong Wu! Please leave Jeremy alone. You can search the house. I'll give you the combination to every lock. Take what you want, just leave my brother alone!"

"In that case," one of the forms turned into a familiar shape, "Jack-bots," Jack looked into familiar red eyes.

The large form threw Jeremy into the center of the room as a swarm of Jack-bots materialized around Jeremy.

"Attack," Jack's voice echoed in his own mind.

As soon as the order was given, spinning blades appeared from the robots' sides. They formed a semi-circle around Jeremy; leaving one side open so that Jack could watch them tear his brother to pieces.

Jeremy laid on the floor; he made no attempt to escape the swarming bots.

"All we wanted were the Wu you stole," his own voice hissed along with another.

"Jeremy," Jack hissed, "Run! You can do it, you can get away…"

"Give us back our Wu!"

"Jeremy, move!"

"Give us the Wu and your brother won't be harmed…"

"Jeremy!"

The first blade was making its incision into his brother's flesh. The red blood streamed out across the pale canvas of his brother's flesh. Purple eyes looked out at him, but they saw nothing.

"Leave him alone!" Jack screamed.

He tried to stand up, but he was paralyzed by an unseen force.

"He'll die if you don't do what we want…"

"JEREMY!"

Blood splattered onto the cold metal of his own creations.

"Jack…" The words came out with a burst of blood from his brother's lips, "Why…"

"JEREMY!"

Into the moonlight stepped his own form. The face of his younger self looked directly into his own.

"And you thought the pain would never end…"

"JACK!"

Jack turned violently to his dying brother. His name was the last utterance before Jeremy was reduced to a bloody pulp.

"JEREMY! NOOO!"

"Too late," he grinned at himself, "Looks like Jeremy is dead. And guess what? It's all your fault! You really are incompetent. You can't even save your own brother. Tsk, tsk. I'm ashamed to call you myself."

Jack shook violently at the sound of his own laughter.

"And guess what, Jackie boy? You're next."

The room emptied save the few remaining Jack-bots coated in Jeremy's blood. Jack looked for his double, but there was no one left. He tried to move, but he was still pinned down.

"Jack-bots," tears were streaming down his face, "Attack."

The bots turned to him with their spinning blades. Pain shot through his body as they began tearing him to pieces.

"Jack-bots," he cried, "Let me die…"

As the darkness consumed him, Jack Spicer shot up violently from the sheets that were tangled around his body.

"Dream…" he panted, "Only a dream…"

"Are you okay?"

Jack looked across the room at his little brother. Ripping the sheets from the bed, Jack went over to Jeremy and lifted him into his arms.

"Thank God," Jack wept, "Oh thank you God…"

Jack cried into his brother's shoulder.

"What's wrong, Jack? Did you see the dragon?"

"Oh God," Jack breathed, "No…" he sniffed, "I had a terrible, no, horrific dream…"

"I could tell. You were screaming my name a lot."

"Oh you don't know, Jeremy, you don't know… And I hope you never do… I love you, Jeremy and I'll never let something bad happen to you. Never ever ever ever! I'll take care of you, I won't let you get hurt…"

Jeremy smiled into his brother's chest, "I love you too, Jack."

Jack cried silently into his brother's hair. His body shook slightly as the tears and terror came to pass.

"I love you," he whispered, "I won't let them take you away from me…"

Jeremy squinted a bit, "Who?"

"Them…" Jack sighed.

Jeremy struggled to turn his head so that he could see his brother's face. Jack was looking blankly at the wall before him. His eyes looked dead in his skull. Jeremy began to wish he had never told Jack about the dragon. His older brother felt different now. He was stiff and rigid. He felt nearly lifeless in Jeremy's arms.

"Oh, Jack…"


	12. Words

**A/N: **No one commented on chapter 10! It feels unloved, lol. Anyway, this may seem a bit slip-shoddy, but it's more of a train of thought segment. The next chapter'll be more together, promise. Oh, and we all know what it is to "tebbigong" someone, right?

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In his lair, Jack searched madly for one of his creations. He hadn't used it in a long time, but if what he suspected was true, he could have a showdown by the end of the week.

Jeremy sat on a steel work stool. He rocked it gently with the weight of his body. He had no idea what his brother was doing, only that he was making a mess of the basement. Jeremy sighed. Whatever Jack had dreamed about had gone to his head. He was still babbling about facing the dragons and doing something called "tebbigonging" to them.

Finally, Jack pulled the square device from his pile of metal rejects.

"Aha! Jeremy," he said as he turned around, "This, is the detecto-bot…"

"It doesn't shoot stuff, does it?" Jeremy instinctively covered his face.

"No," Jack looked it over, "It's a locator bot."

"What does it locate?"

"Shen Gong Wu…"

"Huh?" Jeremy slid off his stool.

Jack cleared his voice in an attempt to mock the old Master Fung.

"'Mystical power objects that must never fall into the wrong hands. If evil gets them, the world will plummet into ten thousand years of darkness.' Or something to that effect."

Jeremy shuddered a bit, "Sounds like a bad Kung Fu movie…"

"Well," Jack chuckled, "Kinda. Only this is real." Jack walked over to a workbench and sat down on a stool, "Painfully real," he added.

"So, who are the people you are going after?"

"They are the monks of the order of the Xiaolin Temple…"

"They seemed like kids to me," Jeremy sighed, "Like you."

"Well, yes but… Wait, you saw them?"

"On the dragon's back," Jeremy nodded slowly.

"Did… Did you talk to them?" Jack had put his work on the table so he could turn to face Jeremy.

"Yes…" Jeremy said slowly.

Jack jumped from his stool, "What did you say to them?"

"I said 'Hi.' They asked where you were and I told them that I don't talk to strangers; especially people riding dragons. They asked me who I was and why I was in your room. My room used to be your room?"

"Yes, yes," Jack said hurriedly, "What else did they say?"

"Well… They said something about a Showdown Royale. They were looking for you so that they would have an extra person?" Jeremy thought a minute, "It was really weird."

"A Showdown Royale? I've never heard of that one. Must be a serious thing. But, why me? I mean, they could go to that Guan guy. I bet he'd help them…"

"Nah, someone requested that you be there," Jeremy was still scratching his head.

"And you tell me all this now?"

"You aren't going to put on all that makeup again, are you?"

"No," Jack sighed, "But for now, if they come around again, just ignore them, please?"

Jeremy nodded.

"Did they give you any names?" Jack pinched his nose.

"Uh, yeah. Rai, Clay, Kimiko, Omi, and three other names, but I can't remember them."

"Three others?"

"Yeah. Something about a young bean-eating witch…"

Jack thought a minute as he tried to decipher his brother's code. When it finally came to him, he felt the hair on his arms stand on end.

"No, no! That's Chase Young and Hannibal Roy Bean!"

"How was I supposed to know!" Jeremy shouted.

"You weren't," Jack sighed again, "I'm sorry for yelling."

"Who are they?"

"Bad people."

"So, if everyone is bad, who is good?"

"Well, the Xiaolin Monks are really the good guys, but I don't like them very much. Chase is evil and Hannibal is pure evil and the witch, Wuya, is kinda like me on steroids. She's a hopeless idiot who wields shocks of green lightening."

"You aren't a hopeless idiot…"

"Last time they all checked, I was. That's why they want me. I'm an easy target. It must be point based…" Jack trailed off as he mused.

"Um… You aren't going to do it, are you?"

Jack turned to Jeremy again, "Me? Fight a Showdown Royale? Please. I can barely do regular Showdowns. That's why I'm messing with this thing," Jack picked up his detecto-bot. Once I hook this up with a GPS system, I'll get some Wu and hold them hostage or something."

"If they have Wu, uh, can't you just take them from them?"

Jack paused a minute, "Are you suggesting that I steal them?"

Jeremy nodded.

"That's not good," Jack chuckled, "I didn't raise you that way, did I?"

"No, I just figure that if they want your help, they should supply you with the tools you need to help them."

Jack thought a moment before nodding, "I suppose…"

There was an awkward silence as Jack returned to his work.

"Jack?"

"Hm?"

"Last night…"

"I'm sorry about all that. I… I just flipped out a bit. It's okay though, I won't let it happed again."

Jeremy nodded with a sigh, "Good, 'cause I don't like you with your hair standing up like that. It's kinda creepy. I like it messy better."

Jack turned to his brother with a smile, "It gets in the way sometimes…"

"Then pull it back."

"In a pony tail?"

"Why not?"

"Guys don't wear pony tails," Jack mumbled, "Besides, I like how it hides my widow's peak…" Jack cringed a bit.

"A what peak?"

"You have one two. It's that weird little area of hair on your forehead. Looks like a triangle."

"Oh," Jeremy tried to look up to his forehead.

"Mine's really deep if you haven't noticed."

"Yeah, I noticed. The makeup was weird too. Please don't do that again…"

"The makeup? You didn't like it?" Jack laughed.

"It was creepy."

Jack sighed, "Okay. No more makeup."

"Promise?"

"Yeah," Jack smiled, "Promise."

"Good."

"But I _am_ going after the next Wu. I wanna face them on fair grounds. If I went to the temple, they'd have the upper hand. Besides, I don't remember the layout very well," Jack sighed.

"Can I come?"

"Huh?" Jack turned and looked dumbfounded at his little brother.

"I want to go with you! I wanna see what you did before I came around and ruined your life…"

"Who said anything about ruining my life?"

"Mom and Dad…"

"Mom and Dad? You listen to those freaks?"

"They said I ruined your life."

"Don't listen to them. They're just jealous that we're happy. Since when do they care about me?"

"I don't know, but it made me sad that they would say that…"

"They're just being their usual nasty selves. Jeremy, you didn't ruin my life at all. They just want you to feel bad because you're the only person who…" Jack coughed a bit before returning to his work.

"Who what, Jack? Tell me."

"Who…" Jack was afraid to throw the word around, "Who ever, well, cared about me."

Jeremy let his eyes settle to the floor.

"Well," Jack sighed, "They know that and they're just using that against you. In that event you have two options. You can ignore them, or stop caring about me. It's up to you really."

"You're my brother, Jack. I love you!"

Jack sat silent for a moment. His eyes darted about as he looked for something to say.

"Nothing Mom or Dad say will change that," Jeremy added.

Jack snapped two parts together and turned to his little brother once more. A light beeping sound came from Jack's creation; a Shen Gong Wu had come to life.

"Are they even here?" Jack grumbled as he headed for the hangar.

"No…" Jeremy sighed.

"Then it looks like you're coming with me."

"With you? To where? Where are we going?"

"To the Shen Gong Wu."


	13. To Fight Again pt 1

**A/N: **HOLY SHIT SHE'S ALIVE!!!! Yes, I am. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Anywhom, I've just been way busy. Sorry if it's short or even a bit sudden feeling, but this is part one of a two chapter segment. I just wanted to make it so that if I never got back to this again, that I had left you all with a maddening cliffhanger. Just kidding. Nah, I might get the next segment up tomorrow. Who knows. I have a finals to study for and other crap to do. I'm not excited. Not one goddn bit. -.-; Oh, and for those of you who were anticipating my rating hike, that will be towards the end and it will be an individual chapter rating. So yeah, that's it for now. I believe that there are still a few artwork offers out there... I'm waiting... lol Kidding... god...

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A stiff wind blew across the frozen desert. Small particles of ice and snow were caught in its path only to be thrown over the side of a sheer icy wall. A long, brittle crake snaked its way through the sheer wall; it would only be a matter of time before the crack separated the wall from the rest of the gigantic burg.

Off in the distance, a sleek aircraft landed gently on the fragile surface. As the cockpit opened, a red-haired form slipped out of it. A smaller form tried to follow, but was quickly discouraged. Once the other form was seated again, the cockpit closed, and the taller mass walked off with something gripped in its hands.

Jeremy listened as the beeping sound that indicated his brother's presence began to fade in the blustering wind. He sat back nervously in his seat. He didn't want to miss his brother's interaction with the Xiaolin people, but he was also afraid of getting lost if he left the ship.

"Well, I guess it beats school…" he sighed.

Jeremy sat up as he decided to turn on the radio. The dash of the jet had way too many buttons on it, so Jeremy just picked one randomly. The landing gear released and the belly of the jet crashed into the ice.

The vibrations from the collapse made their way to the cracked wall. The twisted line made its final extension as the wall began to separate from the rest of the ice.

Jack felt the initial vibration. He turned to see what had made it, only to be blinded by the fearsome wind. Turning back, he felt another vibration coming from directly beneath his feet. Jack looked down to find himself standing on a rather small crack in the ice, but as he stood there, he felt the crack grow wider. There was a jerk and Jack jumped back, landing backwards on the slippery surface. Jack watched as the ground he had just been standing on crumbled into the sea below. Once his heart settled a bit from the initial shock, he crawled over to watch the last of the ice careen into the water. He sighed a bit in relief. As he turned away, a golden object caught his eye. He turned in horror to find the Shen Gong Wu falling through the air with the rest of the icy debris.

"Shit," he cursed as he gripped the sides of his head.

Jeremy was panicking in the jet heard a terribly loud crashing sound from off in the distance. As he nearly became mad in the confines of the jet, a shadow streaked across the cockpit. Jeremy watched through the tinted windows as the shadow settled near the jet.

"Is that Spicer's?" he heard one of them say in the distance over the wind.

"I reckon it is."

"Fancy that, looks like the good old times are back again…"

"Hurry! We must get the Shen Gong Wu before Jack does, or at least intercept him on the way!"

Jeremy listened with a pounding heart. He wanted to call out to them, but he was afraid of disobeying his brother's order not to speak to the Xiaolin monks. Instead, he kicked open the cockpit and followed their fading silhouettes.

"Jack."

The red-haired boy spun around to the sound of his name over the wind.

"It _is _you, isn't it?" the words were followed by a bit of laughter, "What're you doing back here?"

"I'm here to get the Wu," Jack announced.

"Is that so? So, you think you're still in the running for world domination?"

Jack was soon looking into blazing green eyes.

"Raimundo," he acknowledged with a slight bow.

Raimundo grinned a bit, "It looks like you've decided to show your lazy face at just the right time. You see," Rai bit his knuckle a bit, "For the first time ever, we need you help."

"My brother told me."

"_Brother_?" Raimundo turned to the others.

"Must be the kid in his room," Kimiko shouted.

"Ah, I see now. Jack Spicer's not an only child anymore. Must suck for your waning ego."

Jack's eyes turned into violent red slits in his pale face. "The Wu is mine," he snarled.

"Alright," Raimundo motioned for Jack to calm down, "You can have it. We just need you to agree to fight with us."

"Why me?" Jack growled.

Raimundo tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Hey, Omi, mind giving Jack the lo-down?"

"Certainly, Raimundo," Omi grinned as he stepped forward, "Jack Spicer, in one month's time there will be an ultimate challenge. One that occurs only once in five thousand, nine hundred, and seventy-two years. It is imperative that all warriors engage in this battle. You have entwined yourself in the world of good and evil, so now the time has come for you to finally decide where your loyalties truly lie."

"I wonder if the word 'loyalty' means anything to him?" Clay kid as he jabbed Kimiko in the side.

"I choose no side. Consider me retired."

Jack turned back to the cliff. His eyes searched madly for any sign of the fallen Wu.

"That is not possible. You have engaged in Showdowns. Every Showdown has lead to this one. This will truly determine who will win the ancient battle of good and evil."

Jack's lips curled as he mocked Omi's words.

"And why is that?" he spat as he spun around.

"Because, Jack Spicer, in this Showdown, winner takes all."


	14. To Fight Again pt 2

"So where's the Wu, Jack?" Raimundo called as he pointed to the detecto-bot in Jack's hands.

"Why not ask your pet dragon?"

"Dojo can't sense it well with all the interference," Kimiko explained.

"Too bad, then," Jack said as he took a step back towards the edge of the newly formed cliff.

"Whadaya think yer doing?" Clay snarled.

"Who? Me?" Jack pointed at himself and shrugged. "Nothing."

A sickly grin crossed the pale boys face as he spun around and jumped over the edge of the ice.

"Jack!" the Xiaolin monks found themselves screaming at once.

As they ran to the edge, they found Jack scrambling to his feet on an ice burg bellow. Raimundo laughed.

"So what now, Spicer?"

Jack spun around on the burg until he spotted the golden glint of the Shen Gong Wu floating on one of the rogue pieces of ice. Looking back up at the others with the same nerve-wracking grin, Jack jumped across the ice-covered ocean.

Raimundo had followed Jack's gaze into the distance where he too spotted the same golden glint.

"The Wu," he hissed as he shed his outer coat.

"Rai!" Kimiko shouted as he jumped over the edge to follow Jack off into the distance.

Only a few feet back, behind a mound of ice sat Jeremy. He had heard his brother jumping over the edge of the ice. He tried so hard to stifle a scream and it must've worked because no one had spotted him. He looked over the formation at the other monks who were gazing down to the ice below. All of a sudden, the earth began to shake. Jeremy feared another ice collapse only to find that the mound he had been using as cover shot into the air to form a large icy spire. Other mounds around him did the same. Jeremy stood on top of the flat-topped spire and watched as the world around him shifted into an unearthly scene. All the ice became jagged and the ocean became a violent torrent. The waves reached up and over the spot where the other monks had stood. They too were now assembled at the top of one of the spires. Jeremy looked over to them. Their clothes had changed from heavy jackets and coats to strange blue uniforms. The girl turned and caught his eyes, but he quickly looked away. He heard her mumbled something and then there were more eyes looking over at him. He glanced back to find looks of confusion on their faces. Jeremy looked down at himself to find that his clothes had changed as well. He was wearing a long, black coat similar to his brother's only it had a more wispy quality as it came right down to the ground on him.

Into the air shot the golden Shen Gong Wu.

The sound of shouting voices rose above the wind. Four syllables filtered into Jeremy's ears, but he couldn't tell what the voices were saying.

Two forms appeared on the slippery ice below as they jumped back up onto the main land formation. There was no pause before they each bolted in the same direction.

"Mantis Flip Coin!"

Jeremy watched as his brother soared into the air and over the other man. A sense of true pride filled the boy. His brother was way more than he had expected. He was someone with power and ability. Jeremy wanted to jump off his spire and run over to hug his brother, but as Jack and the other boy ran passed him, Jeremy saw a very strange look on Jack's face. All of a sudden, Jack looked mildly confused; like he had no idea what he was doing. His eyes had the empty stare of simplicity as he ran beside Raimundo.

Cracks shot through the ice, threatening to send any one of the warriors careening into the freezing ocean bellow. As Jack passed one of the newly formed spires, a familiar form caught his eyes. Jack stopped in his tracks and turned to look up into the distant eyes of his little brother.

"Jeremy!" he shouted, "I told you to stray in the jet!"

His voice fluctuated between a high-pitched scream and a deep growl. Jeremy felt an almost predatory feeling emanating from his brother. It scared Jeremy as he backed further onto his platform and away from his brother's gaze.

"Better hurry up, Spicer," Raimundo laughed as he made his way forward, leaving Jack almost literally in his dust.

"Mantis Flip Coin!" Jack snarled as he bounded after the other warrior.

As Jack reached the zenith of his jump, Raimundo spun around and sent a burst of wind to knock Jack off his balance. From twelve feet in the air, Jack plummeted to the ground, trying to land on his back side rather than his head. He put his arms out behind him to brace himself as his body slammed into the frozen ice. A painful vibration made its way up his arms and into his back before they went numb. A small hiss came from his lips as he jumped to his feet and ran after Raimuno.

"I'll get you," he snarled, "Jack-bots! Attack!"

A wave of menacing robots flew into the icy arena. Jeremy nearly screamed when he saw them fly over his head. The robots swarmed over Raimundo and stopped his progression. Jeremy felt hot tears burning in his face. Jack had promised that he wouldn't use those terrible robots. He had promised his little brother that they'd leave the robots home… Jeremy had believed him.

Jack had kept the bots at a good distance from the jet. He didn't want to scare Jeremy, but he knew that there was no way he could win a Showdown without them. And winning was all that mattered. Jack snickered as he ran ahead.

"You really haven't changed, have you?" Raimundo grunted over the blowing wind and the onslaught of mechanical minions.

Jeremy felt his face become hot with embarrassment. Mechanical saws whirred, lasers were fired, melting the ice around his brother's opponent. A machine gun went off and Jeremy collapsed on his platform and covered his eyes and ears. It all sounded so terrifying to him. How could his brother do this to him? Was this who Jack had always been? A lying cheater? Jeremy wanted to cry so badly.

Jack paused a moment. His mind began to race, but as the wind died down, he saw the finish line just ahead.

"Guess not," he mumbled back at Rai.

Jack ran ahead and finished the race.

The showdown ended in a blinding flash of light. Jeremy was once more on the firm ground in his own clothes. His eyes gazed down at the ground beneath him.

"How's that, Jerm?" Jack laughed, "I won."

"You cheated," Jeremy mumbled.

"So? You're the one who suggested that I just steal things…"

"Yeah, but this is different. You said you wanted to fight them fair and you cheated."

"It's not cheating, Jeremy. They're better than me at everything. Using the bots helps me compensate…"

"I hate those things. I hate them, Jack and you know it."

"I told you to stay in the jet anyway. You don't even belong here. Let's go…" Jack said as he grabbed Jeremy's collar.

"Well?" Raimundo called after him.

Jack turned to find the Brazilian boy dusting the ice and charred particles from his clothes.

"Well what?" Jack asked back.

"You in?"

Jack snickered, "No…"

"But Jack Spicer," Omi called, "You must. You have no choice in this matter. The only choice is who you will fight for."

Jack looked down at his little brother who looked away from him. Jack sighed.

"I guess… What do you think, Jerm?"

"It doesn't matter to me. Either way, I bet you'll just cheat again… With those ugly robots of yours."

Jack felt a pang of guilt shoot through his body. A sore, achy feeling came from his right arm. He rolled up his sleeve to find a beautiful blue and purple bruise as well as something poking against his skin. Jack sighed as he studied his broken arm.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy…" he whispered.

"I bet you're not… You must really think little of me to go ahead and use those things. Jack, they tried to kill me! How could you keep using them?"

"I…"

"Well?" the Brazilian boy called again.

Jack sighed.

"Jeremy, if I promise to dismember all the remaining Jack-bots, will you stop this?"

"Stop what? Being mad at you for lying to me? I'm your brother, Jack. How could you lie to me?"

"Jeremy…"

"Jack, yoohooo! Hey, who you gonna fight for?" Rai shouted.

"I don't want to fight…"

"Yes you do," Jeremy sniffed, "I saw the look on your face. You liked it. You like fighting with him…"

"Jeremy…"

"Come on, Jack, we don't have all day!"

"Fine! Good! There, you happy? Now leave me alone!"

"So you will fight in the name of the Xiaolin Temple?" Omi beamed.

"Don't put words in my mouth! I said 'good' not 'Xiaolin'."

"Oh, alright…"

"See? That wasn't too hard, now, was it?" Rai laughed a bit.

"Yeah…"

"See ya in a month, Spicer," Clay called back to him as the monks got onto Dojo's back, "Or maybe sooner if you plan on training or anything."

Laughter broke out among the Xiaolin Warriors as they took off into the sky.

"You know where to find us!" one of them shouted back as the laughter continued.

Jack felt humiliated.

"Let's go, Jerm."

Jeremy followed Jack in silence. Jeremy turned to look back up into the sky to find several Jack-bots following them ominously. Jeremy shuddered. He had begun to wish he had never come along in the first place.


	15. The Blood that Binds Them

**A/N:** Ah, yes. Here it is: the next chapter. I'd like to start out by thanking those faithful readers who have stuck with it since the beginning. You're comments are what kept me motivated. Also: I think Jeremy's a bit older at this point than originaly illustrated. That, and he's very mature for his age. How can't he be? Look at how he's gorn up. And also, please remember that children sometimes say things they don't really mean. This is that much awaited **M-RATED **chapter. The next one will alse be rated M. This is also a fairly intense chapter, in my opinion. A lot happens almost at once. If it gets too confusing, let me know. I'm always open to constructive criticism. Anyway, ENJOY!!!!

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A month is a relative amount of time. Technically, a month can consist of up to thirty-one days or seven-hundred forty-four hours. But in the mind of an individual, this time can either be expended at the blink of an eye, while for others, this span of time can last forever. For Jack Spicer, one month was all it took to bring him down.

After the Showdown, Jack watched as his relationship with Jeremy deteriorated. He was standing outside of the school, as was the usual, waiting for Jeremy to walk out from the building. A smile crossed his lips when he saw his little brother surrounded with another child on each side. They were talking and laughing. Jack was so happy to see his brother living the normality he had always wished for. One of the kids sneered at him as they approached. One leaned in and whispered something into Jeremy's ear. His eyes widened as he turned to his older brother. His gaze was at first piercing to a point that Jack just wanted to turn around and leave, but it softened suddenly as he began to laugh.

"What's so funny, Jerm?" Jack smiled.

"N-nothing," Jeremy chuckled "I'm going over Dan's house."

"Dan?" Jack asked.

Jeremy put his hand on the shoulder of the boy to his left, "Yeah, Dan. He has the new game system and I'm gonna go try it out with him."

"Oh…" Jack felt a burning feeling rise up to his cheeks and then fade away, leaving him feeling defeated in the worst way.

"Later," Jeremy scoffed as he saddled his pack and walked off with his friends.

"Uh, yeah. Later," Jack waved after him.

Jack sighed as he felt his heart sink. Oh well, he thought, Jeremy was a growing boy and was entitled to having friends to hang out with. Jack snickered when he realized that he was actually jealous of his younger brother and his friends. Jack had never really had friends and seeing his younger sibling achieve what he had always strived for left him with a mixed feeling of happiness, anger, and jealousy. Happy for his brother; angry at himself; jealousy towards sharing his dearest brother with other people. Jeremy had been his first. Jack was startled by his own possessive behavior. With a sigh, he forced the feelings away. But that wasn't the last time the terrible feeling of defeat would consume him.

A week later Jack was in the park watching Jeremy and his friends play a warped game of army tag across the vast field. He had volunteered to watch the boys that day and was actually surprised that their parents agreed to it.

Sitting on the bench, he felt a burning feeling on the left side of his body. Turning to see what was causing it, he caught the gaze of the person on the bench beside his staring at him before they looked away. Jack suddenly became very self-conscious. He was wearing a black leather coat over a black t-shirt and jeans. His hair was a mess and he knew it. Maybe he looked like a slob. Perhaps the other person was afraid to think he was in charge of all those boys. Maybe they thought he was a criminal of some kind. As Jack's mind wandered, he felt that same burning feeling. His eyes burned as he turned once more to face the woman beside him again. This time she didn't look away. Their eyes locked. Jack could see a sense of warped terror in her eyes. She was afraid of him. But why? What had he done to her? A shrill screech broke the silence as Jack jumped to his feet and dashed across the field; the woman's gaze simply followed him.

One of the boys had gotten the brilliant idea to climb a tree in an attempt to evade capture and had fallen from fairly high up. The other boys huddled around the fallen boy. Jack ran up and parted the bodies.

"What happened?" he panted.

"What does it look like?" that voice, it sneered, "He fell."

Jack looked into the violet eyes of his brother. There was anger and embarrassment written all over his face.

"Okay," Jack said as he re-directed his attention to the boy, "Can you move it?"

The boy was in tears.

"No," he cried.

Jack looked at the crooked angle of the leg and cringed at the sight of the bone protruding against his skin.

"Okay," Jack began to panick as he felt around for his cell phone. Upon realizing he didn't have it with him, he looked back at the crowd of people who had begun to form around them. "Do any of you have a cell phone?" he panted. No one answered. Not even a nod or shake of the head. Instead he heard random murmurs with the word "albino" coming up more than once. "DO ANY OF YOU HAVE A CELL PHONE?" he bellowed. His eyes searched the crowd until he came to the lady from the bench. "What are you looking at?" he screeched, "Huh? You got a phone on you?" she stared at him blankly, "Then get the fuck away!" he watched her shudder a bit. The screams of the injured boy were penetrating the deepest parts of Jack's soul. He felt himself falling into a world of confusion and dismay. "No one here has a phone?" he panted.

"I-I do…" One man finally spoke up as he pulled the phone from his pocket.

"THEN CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!!"

Jeremy caught the look of terror and fury in Jack's eyes. It was an unearthly look that coated his brother's face. Something inside of Jack had been awakened, but the sounds of the other boys giggling about the amount of trouble Jack was going to be in pulled Jeremy from his revelation.

"Looks like he's really screwed this time, huh?" one boy snickered as he jabbed him in the shoulder.

"Yeah…" Jeremy choked.

Watching Jack nearly lose control struck Jeremy with a sense of fear he had never known. It was worse than the Jack-bots or the make-up. Because it was really Jack. Something inside of him had been shaken.

After that, Jeremy chose his friends over Jack. He'd rather be in the stable comfort of his friends than the noticeably deteriorating state of his brother.

"Jeremy?" Jack called as he wandered up the stairs out of the basement.

Jack stopped suddenly as the sound of an explosion caught his attention. There, on the big screen TV was a game character tossing a grenade at his enemies. The other boys he didn't' even know were there "oooo"-ed and "ahhhhh"-ed at the tactical genius. Jack was about to interrupt them when he heard one of the boys speak.

"Hey, Jerm, you sure you're bro's not here?"

"Yeah," Jeremy mumbled as he played with the controls to the game.

"Good. 'Cause he scares me."

Jeremy paused the game, "Scares you?"

"Yeah, he looks at you strange some times. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Oh… yeah… Jack thinks I'm his friend. I guess he never had any," Jeremy un-paused the game.

"That's sad," one of the boys scoffed.

"Yeah," Jeremy mumbled as he moved his body with the controller, "I guess he likes to think I'm his friend too. Sad thing is, I think I've outgrown him. I mean, when I was younger, he was cool when I was younger…"

"'Younger'?" one of them laughed, "We're only in first grade!"

"So? It only took him six years to grow old on me. That's all."

The clip-board in Jack's hands slipped from his fingers. It fell to the ground with a fairly loud thud. One of the boys heard it, but before he turned around, Jack was gone.

Back in the basement, Jack paced madly. Tears were welling in his eyes but he fought them back.

_He outgrew me…_ his tired mind raced, _I raised him and he outgrew me… I guess that's normal,_ he rationalized;_ children eventually outgrow their parents… but… I'm his brother… I love him…_

Jack began to bite at his already barely-there nails. He bit and tore at the enamel until he got one so short that blood began to seep out from beneath. He stuck the wounded finger in his mouth as he collapsed onto his couch. A terrible sense of defeated exhaustion overcame him. His eyes wandered around until they rested on the scrap heap. He had been meaning to clean that up, but one piece in particular caught his eye. It was a thin piece of metal that had a nice edge to it. Jack gave the last of his effort as he wandered over to the pile of metal parts. He reached in gently and pulled the targeted piece from the rest. It felt so right in his hand. He gazed almost lovingly at it as he wandered back to the couch. He sat down softly and methodically. His eyes studied the metal shard with a burning intensity.

_He outgrew me…_

He took the dull side of the shard in his right hand. Slowly rolling up his sleeve to reveal the pale skin that covered his body he angled the sharp side of the piece to his skin. He began by pulling it lightly across his wrist. A think line of blood followed the metal shard across his skin. The line was nice and neat, but it wasn't enough. Jack drew another, deeper line below the first one. This time the blood actually flowed out of the wound and down to the dangling palm of his hand. It was satisfying, but it wasn't enough. More and more lines made their way across his pale wrist. It was never enough. The pain in his arm was never enough to make the pain inside go away.

Across the room, sitting on a metal shelf was a stuffed teddy-bear. Its black eyes gazed across the room as its owner mutilated himself. Each drag of the blade was mimicked in the bear's shining eyes. Two-fold, the injury was caused. Once on the mortal flesh and once in the stuffed animal's eyes. The stuffing gave out a bit and the bear slumped a bit on its shelf. The eyes could no longer see the pain.

The pure and utter exhaustion let the metal blade slip from Jack's fingers. The dull look of defeat in his eyes melted away as his eyes slowly closed. Jack collapsed onto his side on the couch. The bloody arm hung limply over the side as Jack drifted off to sleep. Every line in his hand filled with the crimson fluid as the soft, methodic breathing of an injured soul filled the darkness that was its home.


	16. Only Human

Well, it's been quite a while. Sorry for the wait. Things've been nuts round here. I wanted to get a lot more done during my winter break, but that didn't happen. So, I'm back here again and a mild sense of depression has set in, so guess what? You got a chapter! Anyway, it all stems from my evil roommate Arabrab (I say her name backwords because I am convinced that when speaking of her, her name rips a portal into hell that sucks your soul and energy away from your very body.) So, until I get rid of her, (I mean she _did_ ruin $300 worth of text books that I bought with my hard earned money and a first edition Ray Bradbury compilation, also bought with my own money so I _am_ at least entitled to a compensation, right?) I'm so sick of her that you'll probably be seeing some more chapters in a more timely manner. Sorry to rant about my sucky life-style at the moment. HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!!!! Enjoy this belated holiday gift from me to you! lol Stupid, Arabrab...

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The boy sat at the door with his ear pressed against its surface. His eyes were tightly shut with a sense of surreal terror. It had been three days since his brother vanished into the depths of the basement. All that remained of him above were the sporadic yells and screams. He would be silent for hours before bursting out like a mad man. Incoherent words made their way up the stairs and into the smaller boy's ears. He was afraid. He sighed as he listened to the door. He wanted to know what Jack was yelling about so badly. Slowly, he looked above his head at the door knob. With a shaky breath he stood up to face the door. Reaching out slowly he took hold of the knob and turned it slowly. As soon as the door slid from its frame, the random words took shape.

"Who are you! Who the fuck are you! Why are you here! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't dump your ass on the side of the road! I don't need you! I never wanted you! You stupid piece of shit!"

Jeremy took one step down the stairs to see a chair soar across the stairwell and crash into the wall. Heavy, ragged breathing met his ears.

"I don't need you!" the voice hissed.

Taking another step down the stairs he heard the sound of something else colliding into a wall.

"I hate you… I always hated you! You shouldn't even exist!"

His brother's voice shook with desperate sobs.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, Jeremy Spicer watched in horror as his brother lifted the dismembered limb of one of his creations and slammed it into his map table sending a large crack through the center of the glass surface. Over and over the appendage beat its way through the table until it finally snapped in two. Then, with white knuckles, Jack threw it across the room knocking a shelf of parts to the floor.

"NO!" he screamed as he beat his bear knuckles into the shattered glass of his table top. "I HATE YOU!"

Jeremy tried to retreat back up the stairs, but the stairs creaked beneath him.

A thick silence fell over the room. The tall boy's form became rigid; bloody hands draped at his sides. He seemed to be looking upon the destruction he had caused. His lips moved slowly with words too low for Jeremy to hear.

"J-Jack?"

"… little fucker…"

"Are… Are you okay?"

"You know," his head perked up, "I've been thinking."

His voice was devoid of any anger. In fact, it sounded almost happy.

"R-Really Jack?"

"Yeah. You wanna know what I've been thinking about?"

Jeremy's eyes darted to the stairwell as his brother started to approach him.

"Y-Yeah, sure…"

"I've been thinking, that since you came along my life hasn't really changed…"

"I-" Jeremy took a step backwards, "I don't understand."

"Well, how can I put this? I'm still alone, I'm still misunderstood, I try my hardest and no one can even see it."

Jack's words seemed muddled and confused. It was almost as if he was simply spewing random words from his mouth in a desperate attempt to illustrate his massive sense of desperation.

"I gave my life to you, Jeremy," he continued, "And what do I get in return? Abandonment? Is that it? Well, I'm seriously beginning to regret ever caring for you at all…"

Jeremy's cheeks were heating up with rage as he listened to his brother tear into him.

"I'm not a dog," he spat finally, "I'm your brother!"

"You're a mistake! You're just like me! You're nothing but a mistake! I hate you! I've always hated you! Something inside of me made me believe that in caring for you, I'd be repairing something within me. But it hasn't. If anything, I'm more decrepit now than I ever was before. You're a handicap, a leech, a useless appendage…" Jack reached for a severed pipe that laid on the ground beneath him. "And do you know what people do to useless things?"

Jeremy's eyes grew as he watched Jack tap the metal piped on his bloodied hand.

"Well? DO YOU?"

"N-N…"

"No? Then allow me to demonstrate," Jack raised the pipe above his head, "THEY DESTROY THEM!" he bellowed as he brought the pipe down with his gaze sent intently on his younger sibling.

Jeremy tried to scream, but it was all too sudden. Instead, he instinctively covered his head with his hands. Closing his eyes in wait for the cold, hard metal to impact on his scull, he heard a robotic voice that was suddenly silenced. As he uncovered his head, his ears were free to hear the light sound of electrical sparks. As he looked up, he found Jack holding one end of the pipe. On the other end of the pipe was the skewered body of one of his robots. Its red eyes grew as it realized that its vital internal wiring had been destroyed.

"I-I'm sorry," it gurgled through the oil that was backing up into its mouth, "Master."

Like blood, the dark oil dribbled out of its mechanical housing and onto the rod that was gripped tightly in Jack's own hands. There was some mechanical sputtering before the mass went limp and dangled lifelessly over the pipe that went through its body. Its knees buckled and the weight caused Jack to release the pipe to allow the form to rest on the ground in a mechanical heap.

"That's what they do," he muttered as he stepped over the pale face on the floor, "They destroy them."

Jeremy stood terrified as he watched Jack disappear into the darkness of the basement. His eyes watered at the aspect of still being alive, but what drew him to tears was the impaled robot on the floor. Oil pooled around it as its widened eyes stared out at nothing. The dark liquid seeped out of its mouth creating dark lines that traced the flaws in its synthetic flesh and soaked into its vibrant, fibrous hair. It was an old machine, but Jeremy had known it to be his brother from time to time.

"Oh, Jack," he whispered as he forced his stiff legs to move.

His weak knees finally gave way and he collapsed to the floor beside the corpse.

"I'm so sorry," he wept as he lifted the mechanical head to his shoulder, "I-I didn't know… I'm so sorry…"

"That's okay…"

Jeremy nearly jumped as the sound of his brother's voice drifted into his ears.

"Really… That's okay…"

Jeremy brought the head from his shoulder and rested it on his lap.

"You're… working?"

"Back up power," its oily hand reached up and patted its chest.

"Oh… Does it hurt?"

"Hurt?" it looked down at the pipe in its abdomen, "A little… But I can't feel down there anymore…"

"Oh…"

"I-" it winced, "_He_ loves you. He really does. He programmed me that way so I know it's true…"

"Then why? Why is he being this way? You're him, aren't you? Then tell me, why is he acting this way?" Jeremy was sobbing over the machine.

"Because you're growing away from him. All children do that eventually, but he just doesn't want to believe it. He doesn't want to believe that you're moving beyond him."

"Then how come you understand that but he doesn't?"

"My dear boy, I am a robot. I'm prone to logic. You're brother? Why, he's human. Emotion is what drives him. And right now his feelings are all muddled in a way he isn't used to."

"But you can feel too, can't you?"

"I can synthesize emotions. I don't live them."

Jeremy looked down at the oil that was pooling in his lap.

"How long will your battery last?"

"Not much longer, what with all the oil that's leaking out of me," it forced a chuckle.

"I wish you were him…"

"You wish my state of expiration upon your brother?" the machine tried to sit up but failed.

"No. I just wish he'd one day be vulnerable enough to let me talk to him…"

"Ah, I see. Well, let's just hope that it will be a different kind of vulnerability than mine, hm?"

"Yeah… I don't know what I'd do if he ever…" Jeremy didn't dare finish his thought.

"Died?"

Jeremy bit his lip as he nodded.

"He _is _only human, but if he loves you, and I know that he does, he won't kill himself or anything stupid like that. Just watch out for him. I know you are young, but still, he needs you. Just be there for him."

"Okay," Jeremy choked.

"Good…" the sound faded as the voice box failed, "Good…"

Jeremy sat in the cold silence of the basement. He was alone and would give anything for his brother to reappear from the shadows, even if he was going mad. He just wanted to know that Jack was still there. He wanted to call to him, but he couldn't. Instead, he laid the broken machine on the floor and made his way to the stairs. He turned back to the dimly lit world that concealed his brother to find a shadow of a down-turned face created by what little light still flickered in the room. Jeremy reached out to say something, but the shadow vanished.

"I'm sorry, Jack…" was all he whispered as he ascended the stairs out of the darkness and into the light.


	17. Goodbye

**A/N:** This is a long one, so please set aside a descent amount of time to read it. I sat up for hours working on it, trying to get it all just right. About three hours later and 33 rounds of Nightwish's Nemo, I think it's pretty good. Hey, I had to get in the mood! **BE FORE WARNED! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THAT SELF MUTILATION I WARNED YOU ABOUT BEFORE! THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M! **At this rate the whole damn story should just be rated M. Ah well. Enjoy!

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Jeremy sat at the dinning room table struggling with his mathematics homework. He had erased so many answers from the sheet that the paper was becoming thin and threatening to rip if he erased it anymore.

A loud knocking drew him from his futile work. Pushing the chair back, he stood to his feet and moved to the door.

"I'm coming," he mumbled to no one but himself.

The knocking turned to pounding.

"Just a moment!"

Throwing the door open, Jeremy found four familiar faces standing outside as well as one unfamiliar one.

"Y-You're those monks… Aren't you?"

"Jeremy, right?" the tan boy asked.

"Yes…"

"Where's that damn brother of yours?"

"I-I haven't seen him in almost a week…"

The girl suddenly jabbed the Brazilian boy and nodded towards their new companion.

"Oh, Jeremy? This is Jermaine…"

"Charmed, I'm sure," the dark boy said as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Sure," was all Jeremy said.

"Well? Where's Jack?"

"Jack?" Jeremy's voice shook.

"Yeah… Why?"

Jeremy turned around to glance at the basement door.

"He… He hasn't been around…"

Raimundo followed the young Spicer's gaze.

"Alright, that's it."

The dragon of wind shoved the boy aside and headed for the basement. Throwing the door open he bellowed:

"Jack! Where are you?"

The sound of something falling to the floor sounded up the stairs.

"Alright, you know you suck at hiding so just come on out. We need to talk about that Showdown…"

Silence.

Raimundo turned to the other dragons as he rolled his eyes.

"Just go down there Rai," Kimiko sighed.

"Fine."

Raimundo started down the stairs when he turned to the Spicer boy who stood trembling at the top of the stairwell.

"Well? You comin'?"

"N-No… Please don't make me…"

Raimundo instantly spotted the intense fear in the young boy's eyes.

"Is there something I should be worried about?" Raimundo asked as he stepped up a stair.

"He's mad…"

"Why? Did you piss him off?"

Jeremy shook his head, "Not like that. He's insane…"

Raimundo gazed past the boy at the other dragons. There was a quizzical look on each of their faces.

"Insane? Kid, your brother was never mentally healthy," Raimundo began to descend again.

"No, wait," Jeremy reached out, "If you find him," Rai turned to face him, "Don't hurt him… Please?"

Once more the Dragon of Wind turned to his counterparts who simply nodded.

"Alright."

As Raimundo descended into the darkness of the basement, he felt a dark, foreboding, almost painful sense of distress.

"Jack?" he called.

A light flickered somewhere in the room. In that small flash of light, Raimundo saw something he had never expected to see. The room was a disaster. Everything was broken. One thing in particular caught his gaze. The light lit up once more and he confirmed it.

"Jack?" his voice shook as he approached the body lying on the floor, "Oh shit…" he breathed when he noticed that the form was still in the darkness.

In an instinctive burst of energy, he ran to the still frame. Kneeling beside the mass, Raimundo reached out to it. It was cold, so very cold almost… metallic? Raimundo turned the body over into his lap. The pale face of an oil stained robot looked back at him. At first Raimundo was startled by the appearance of such a familiar face, but he was quick to realize that it was nothing more than the infamous Jack-bot. A smirk crossed his lips. A strange sense of loss filled him. Jack-bot was like the symbol of a long past childhood. He was the product of their childhood, Jack's to be precise, but he was still part of their lives. A robot that was better than the original. Raimundo chuckled as the memories of the red-headed fool and his robots. He was suddenly torn from the past by the sound of something being dragged across the floor. Raimundo's senses became sharp and alert as he looked slowly around the shattered map table. The shape of what looked like a leg was dragged into the darkness.

"Jack?" He placed the machine back on the floor and headed over to where he saw the leg.

"No…"

Raimundo stopped suddenly. The chilling voice made the hair on his body stood on end. His breath was caught deep within his own chest.

"Please… Don't tell Jeremy…"

A violent coughing fit followed the words. There was a hacking sound and then the soft patter of liquid hitting the floor.

"Jack…" Raimundo reached into the darkness.

A clammy hand shot out at him and grabbed him by the collar dragging him to his knees and into the darkness.

"This was the only way…" the ruby orbs shone weakly from the dim lighting.

Raimundo froze a moment to allow his eyes to focus in the darkness. Once he could finally discern the sight before him from the rest of the blackness, he found himself gazing directly into the red eyes of none other than Jack Spicer. And yet it wasn't… The eyes were dull and distressed. Weary lines were forming under the lids. His hair hung limply over his forehead; it looked as if it hadn't been tamed in weeks. There seemed to be a permanent wrinkle across the bridge of his nose. A dark line ran from the corner of his contorted lips and dribbled down his chin before dripping off onto his clothes. He was smiling, but he wasn't happy. Not with those eyes… He was in pain.

Raimundo reached out to him only to have his hand land in cold wetness. There was a soft moan and he pulled his hand away. It was coated in a dark fluid. He turned slightly so as to direct more light onto his appendage… Red… It was so red… like his eyes… like his hair… Like the matted hair on his head… like the blood that should've been in his body.

"Guys!" he called, "Get down here know with a flashlight or something and some bandages!"

"What's wrong?" the female voice called back.

"Jack… Just get down here!"

"No…" a bloody hand reached out and took a hold of the Brazilian boy's wrist, "Please don't let Jeremy see… I don't want him to see me like this. I just want him to forget about me…"

"Oh come on, Jack," Raimundo gripped the pale boy's wrist with his free hand, "Don't be that way…"

"No… It's bad… I made sure to do it right…"

"Do what right?"

The pained eyes winced at him.

"What's going on?" the panicked voice came up to him from behind.

Light suddenly shined over the broken body.

"Oh my god…" she gasped as she held the light above Raimundo's head.

He was bloody, but the blood wasn't from his wrists. In the limp hand beside him laid a serrated knife.

"I did it right…" he chuckled as he pulled his hand from Raimundo's hands and rested it on the pool of blood on his stomach, "I cut it all right open…"

"Clay!" Kimiko called, "Where are those bandages! "

"It'll be okay now… I failed him as a brother… As a friend… He doesn't need a dead weight like me to drag him down… And that's what I am… I more dependant on him than he is dependant on me…" he stopped to take a deep, shaky breath "Something… Something inside of me stopped me from doing this so many times… I guess it was hope…"

"HURRY UP CLAY!"

"I guess I held on to the hope that one day someone would find me worthy of their attention or maybe even… their love…"

"Come on, Jack. Knock that shit off. Sure you're a lame pseudo-goth, but that doesn't mean you have to die…"

"I did it right… It'll all work out in the end…" the crimson eyes slid shut.

"CLAY!"

"I HAVE THEM!"

"GET DOWN HERE THEN!"

The heavy sound of the cowboy descending the stairs met their ears.

"What's goin' on?" he panted as he handed the bandages off to Kimiko.

The Japanese girl moved to one side to let Clay see what it was that had happened.

A gasp escaped from Clay's lungs. The red eyes opened again and he was locked in their empty gaze. Frozen… He was frozen like a statue; bound to one place without the ability or will to leave that single spot.

Kimiko passed the bandages further on to Raimundo who leaned in to try and patch the large gash in Jack's stomach up.

"You won't tell him, will you?"

"Jack," Raimundo breathed as he worked, "If you didn't want him to know then why did you do it?"

"Because I had to…"

"But you didn't," Rai laughed in frustration.

"OMI!" Kimiko called, "GRAB THE PHONE AND CALL 911!"

"What?" the smaller boy called down the stairs.

"JUST DO IT!"

"Okay…"

Kimiko listened as there was some pitter-pattering upstairs.

"What number must I call again?"

Kimiko growled.

"Never mind, I got it," Jermaine called.

"What happened?" the weak voice was barely heard over Jack's moans and heavy breathing.

Kimiko turned to find Jeremy standing at the bottom of the stairs gripping the bottom post as if her were holding on for dear life. She closed her eyes as she approached him.

"I won't lie to you…" she began as she knelt down to the young boy's level.

"NO!" Jack began to squirm as Raimundo worked.

"Your brother…"

"DON'T TELL HIM! PLEASE DON'T TELL HIM!"

"Stop screaming! You're just forcing the wound open!" Raimundo hollered.

Kimiko tried to start again, "He's…"

"I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH! PLEASE DON'T TELL HIM!"

Kimiko tried to start again, but Jeremy cut her off.

"He's dying… isn't he?"

The squirming stopped and Jack was silent.

At first she was shocked to hear the boy say that, but then she remembered who's brother he was. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and looked away.

"Can you help him?"

"That's what I'm trying to do…" Raimundo grunted.

"Don't bother…" Jack mumbled, "There's nothing left now. Please. Just leave me alone…"

"Jack?" Jeremy asked as he approached Clay's back.

Clay turned to see the boy behind him and moved to the side. There laid the bloodied form of his brother. His breath was slowing and his body was beginning to relax.

"Hi, Jack," Jeremy spoke softly.

There was a pounding on the door upstairs.

"AMBULANCE!"

"Jack…"

Raimundo finally backed off; his clothes covered in Jack's blood.

There was a brief moment of silence in which time seemed to slow down. Jeremy slowly collapsed to the ground before his brother's shattered body just as the medics made their way down the stairs into the basement. Raimundo stood up and fought the tears from his eyes. Kimiko walked to his side and gripped his arm. Clay was still frozen in place. Jeremy watched as his brother's limbs convulsed a bit. The medics parted the wall of bodies. Upon seeing Jack's body there was a unified gasp and a momentary pause before they started loading him onto the stretcher. His brother looked like a rag doll as the men lifted him onto the bed. Once he was strapped in, they lifted the bed onto its wheels. As they passed Jeremy, Jack turned to him.

"Goodbye, Jeremy…" a weak arm slid out from underneath the blankets and straps, "I loved you so much…"

Jeremy saw the tears glistening in Jack's dull eyes. The boy wanted to answer his big brother's word, but he couldn't. His voice was caught in his throat. He fought with himself so very hard. He had to say something, anything! And finally the words burst from his lips.

"I love you, Jack!" the medics paused as they began to ascend the stairs, "I've always loved you and I always will!"

A weak smile crossed Jack's lips before his eyes slid shut and he fell into unconsciousness.

"JACK!" the boy screamed, "JACK!"

A police officer came down the stairs just as the stretcher made it to the ground floor. He walked over and gently placed a hand on Jeremy's shoulder.

"Where are your parents?" he asked.

"My parents?" Jeremy mumbled.

"Yes, where are they?"

"They're not here. They never were…"

"I don't…"

"Jack was my big brother… He raised me… Not them… There were never here… for either of us…"

The officer looked up and into the eyes of the other people in the room. Tears were in their eyes. Everyone but Jeremy was crying.

"Come with me," the officer extended a hand to him, "It'll be alright, I promise."

"I'm tired of promises… I don't want to go with you… My brother is going to die… I just…" the tears finally began to burn, "I just want to be alone…"

The police officer examined the other faces once more.

"I'll be upstairs. Come up whenever you are ready to talk, okay?" the officer patted his shoulder.

"Okay…" he rasped.

"Good."

The officer nodded before heading back up the stairs.

"What are we gonna do now?" Kimiko sniffed.

"Huh?" Raimundo sighed as he sat cross-legged on the floor staring at his bloody hands.

"We can't win."

"What?"

"The fate of the world has been decided. With Jack dead, we can't win the Showdown. They Heylin will gain control of all the Shen Gong Wu and the world as we know it will come to an end…"

"He isn't dead yet…" Jeremy sniffed.

"Yeah, but no offense," Raimundo mumbled as he looked up at Jeremy "But he's of no use to us in the hospital."

There was a long silence.

"We need a replacement…" Kimiko mused.

"But who? Fung can't fight, he's a protector of the scrolls. None of the Monks can fight… We're screwed…" Raimundo moaned as he rested his head in his sticky hands.

Jeremy gazed at the floor. His entire life scrolled through his mind like a silent film. His brother had always been there for him and now he had his chance to be there for him.

"I'll do it."

Everyone turned to the young boy.

"Listen, Jeremy," Kimiko said softly, "You've been through a lot…"

"No, I need this. Please let me fight with you?"

"You're too young and besides, you don't know any moves," Raimundo rested his cheek on his hand.

"Please…"

Raimundo saw the sincerity in the young Spicer's eyes. Something he had seldom seen in his older brother. Raimundo visually consulted with the others who were with him. He looked into each of their eyes and, in their own way, both Kimiko and Clay gave their approval. Raimundo sighed.

"Alright then. If it works with the rules, you can fight in place of your brother."

"It'll be dangerous, Jeremy…" Kimiko tried to deter him.

"I know… But I think I have to do this… For Jack… I think…"

"You're still just a boy," Kimiko reminded him.

"It'll be okay. Jack raised me, remember?"

The monks looked amongst themselves; unsure of what that was supposed to mean.

"Yeah, but…"

"Please, just let me do this. Please."

Kimiko gave up trying to convince him that it was a bad idea. But he was right, Jack _was_ his brother and if anything, he had inherited Jack's stubborn nature. And there was no way of penetrating Jack's stubbornness.

"Alright…" she agreed.

"But now I just need to get out of here without that cop guy getting me. He'll just take me away and I'll never get to see any of you again…"

"Well," Rai looked at his watch as he stood up, "By my clock, we have four days to teach you as much as we can about the Shen Gong Wu, the Showdown Royale, and what you're up against," Rai looked around at the dragons for confirmation. "Omi! Jermaine!" The two descended the stairs, "We're blowing this place."

"But how?" Jermaine asked, "The fuzz is all over up there!"

"This _is_ Jack's lair. There has to be more than one secret exit…" Raimundo thought aloud as he searched for just such a way out of the building.

Kimiko walked up the Jeremy and gripped his shoulder firmly, "No matter what, Jeremy, your brother is proud of you. I promise you that…"

"For once… I believe that…"

"Here!"

Raimundo had found a tunnel leading out of the basement.

"Where does it lead?" Omi asked curiously.

"Out," was all Raimundo said before taking the flashlight from Kimiko and heading down into the pitch darkness, "Just follow me guys."

Upon hearing the sudden silence coming from downstairs, the police officer headed to the stairwell.

"Hey, kid, you okay?"

When there was no answer, he took out his flashlight and headed down the stairs.

"Kid?"

He searched the room with his light, but there was no one to be found.


	18. One Last Visit

**A/N: **Okay, this is a short one to counteract the 6 pager I just put up. It's sort of a middle/filler chapter. Enjoy!

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Four days… That was all it was… But to Jeremy, it was an eternity. He slept very little for those long days. If he wasn't studying Xiaolin lore and practicing with the Wu, he either at the hospital with his brother or was laying awake on his mat, the image of his brother's bloody body burned in his mind. It was impossible to sleep when he knew that it was his fault that his brother was in the hospital with all those wires and tubes sticking out of him. He really was sure that Jack wouldn't be around for much longer.

It was the day of the Showdown when Jeremy visited Jack for what he felt would be the last time. Everytime was the last time. Jeremy wasn't sure about how much longer he had his brother with him in this world. Each time he visited he found his brother lying on his back with a respirator mask over his nose and mouth with and IV stuck in the back of his hand. His wrists were tied to the armrests on the bed as a precaution. His eyes were open slightly, but not enough for him to really see anything, not that he was even awake as far as Jeremy could tell..

"Jack?" Jeremy pulled a side chair up to the bed, "Well… Today's the day…" he paused before reaching into his pocket, "Here…" He placed a controller in Jack's pale hands, "This is the control to the camera-bot. I've made it so that it sends a direct signal to your television here. I… I just want to know that you're watching over me…" When his brother was silent, Jeremy felt a familiar burning feeling in his cheeks. The controller slipped from the weak fingers and fell to the floor with a light tapping sound. "No, Jack," Jeremy picked it back up, "You hold this." He tried to close Jack's hands around the device, but as soon as he let go, the fingers slipped open and the remote fell to the floor once more. "Please, Jack. I need to know that you are watching over me. You've been there for all this time, please don't leave me now. Not yet…"

A light chuckle caused the frail body to shake. Red eyes turned on Jeremy.

"You don't need me, Jerm. You never did…"

Again the controller fell to the floor. Jack turned away from Jeremy and closed his hands tightly.

"Just go. Go ahead and replace me. That was what you were always meant to do… All you ever did was show me what I never had…"

"Jack…"

"Go…"

With a terrible burning sensation, Jeremy placed the controller on the bedside table. Jack closed his eyes as his younger brother stood from his chair.

"I need you, Jack," the boy whispered.

Jeremy paused a moment hoping to hear from his brother, but when nothing came, he choked back his tears and walked through the door.

"Jeremy…"

The small sound was barely audible.

"Yes, Jack?"

"G-Good luck…"

A tearful smile crossed Jeremy's lips.

"Thanks," he choked before leaving the room completely.

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**P.S.** See? He's not dead. Not yet anyway... hehehe... Anyway, the next chapter is the Showdown. I think I may actually have to write out some kind of a framework for that one. It's gonna be long, but it'll hopefully flow nicely. And believe me, it'll be the most emotional chapter yet... In short, give me a while for the next chapter. If it takes me a few weeks, it isn't because I don't care. It's because I want it to be one of the greatest things I've ever written! Well... maybe... Anyway, Daxo, I'm interested so shoot.


	19. Showdown Royale pt 1

**A/N:** Yes, I'm alive and I shouldn't be doing this. Not with a D in chem and a ton of reading to do for Western Classics, but here. I have no idea how many people are still keeping track of this mess, but I got a message that stated that I _NEEDED_ to finish this story so I pulled this, the first part of the second to last chapter, right out of my ass. The next, I don't know, however many, chapters are all part of one chapter. I'm rusty with Xiaolin Showdown, so there may be descrepencies by way of character traits. Ah, well, I did my best. Enjoy, you needy people...

* * *

The dry wind blew across the arid land. A lone tangle of roots and limbs bounced across the cracked ground. Age had worn this empty land. Few feet had crossed its treacherous terrain. There lay no water for miles. Only the sun guided a lone wanderer unlucky enough to find themselves trapped in this barren wasteland. However, on this day, beings traveled from all over just to stand upon this dehydrated and sun-scorched earth. 

To the west, there stood a line of beings whose only desire was to see the world slip into a perilous darkness in which they themselves would rule over the freedom of humanity. The first was a taller man with long black hair. It blew in the dry air; flowing gracefully around his angular face. His eyes were like those of a venomous snake. They stared at those they looked upon with such infuriated intensity, that even the strongest of men couldn't help but shudder slightly at his sight. He wore spined armour to protect himself from blows he knew he wouldn't even take; his quickness being far superior to any of his challengers. In his hand he held a double edged spear. It was a prize from his earlier days and the life he had before this. In the other hand, he held a satchel containing the prize and wager of this battle. Next to him stood the tall, slender form of a woman. Her long, red hair adorned her face and shoulders. Her green eyes shone like emeralds in the world around her. Wearing the same dark robe she had always worn, she stood beside the reptilian warrior picking her fingernails as she waited for the second group to arrive. She had long awaited this day. Deep down inside she planned to use the battle to come as a launching point for her future success as the permanent ruler of the world. She giggled slightly at the thought of standing over the lifeless body of the man beside her. His days of mocking her weaknesses were about to come to an end. On her left stood a rather disfigured figure. The only way to even describe this being is to call it what it is: A bean. The root of evil in this world stemmed from the tentacle-like fronds of this disturbed mutation of creation. Crooked teeth and vile yellow eyes adorned is inhuman face. On the bend of one of its tentacles sat a red and black bird who stared blankly across the land and at nothing in particular. Beside this creature stood another abomination. Cyclops towered above them all. Stunted in brains, but in no way short on strength, the creature of myth was the perfect weapon for those who could control it. It stood dumbfounded, sucking on its own thumb in a blinded stupor. Next to it stood a rather squat figure with dark rings about its eyes giving him the name he had become known as among the crime rings in the deepest, darkest corners of China. There also stood a young girl dressed from head to toe in a black cat costume. Her long claws clicked against one another as she struggled to retain her dwindling attention span. Two larger figures stood beside her. One was a Russian merchant who almost lost the Xiaolin their water monk. Finally, a mime. A silent figure leaned casually on nothing, continuously checking the watch it didn't have. But this wasn't any mime, it was one with "magical" attributes. The lizard man rolled his eyes as he remembered these last two individuals. He hated that they were here, but the ancient rules were just: All who ever had dealings with the magical powers of the Shen Gong Wu had to be here on this day.

Finally, after hours of wait, the long green dragon descended from the sky. As it shrunk back down to a more manageable size, its cargo unloaded onto the deserted floor. Six forms had arrived with a satchel of their own to face the evils of this world. It was on their shoulders that the future of the world's freedom stood. Four of them trained most of their lives for this day. These monks of the order of Xiaolin had many dealings with the sacred artifacts over which this battle would be waged. They knew the risks that were involved in wagering the possession of these artifacts and they feared the worst when they saw that all the evils had actually assembled. Whoever controlled the Wu, could potentially control the world. One of them was a young man who had been unwittingly dragged into the ranks of the forces of evil and now sought the revenge he so desired for having them toy with his heart and integrity. A friend of the smallest of the monks, he was welcome to join in this epic battle between good and evil. He smiled in a nervous attempt to hide his overwhelming fear for his life and the life of the monks he had come to call his friends. The final form was that of a child. Young as he was, he stood in for the burdens of his brother who was no longer able to fight. He had chosen to fight for the side of good, even though his brother's track record rested with the forces of evil. It was his brother's wish to fight for good to make up for his years of misguided toils in the world of darkness. A fear had recently come to this young boy. He was told by the others that because of his brother's misguided ways, he may be forced to fight for the Heylin side. If Chase invoked the literal meaning of the rule book, then yes, he would have to fight with them. But they prayed that chases would realize how out numbered and sorely underpowered they really were. He was just a boy, anyway. Let the deficient side of good have him for their pathetic plight against the greatest forces of evil. But a foreboding feeling still lurked between the boy and the Xiaolin monks. The tanned boy, their leader, stepped forth to confront the opposing forces.

"So? We just gonna stand here or are we gonna showdown?"

"_We_," Chase stepped forward, "_We_," he motioned to the other Heylin powers then pointed back at Raimundo, "You have a traitor in your midst."

Raimundo scoffed, "That is so clichéd. Please, Chase, enlighten me. Where? Where is our traitor? You talkin' about Jermaine? Sure he was against us, but he didn't know it. You talking about me? Yeah, I ran with your pack for a while, but this is my place. So, tell me, Chase, where is our traitor?"

Chase scoffed. He was calling on the rules and Raimundo knew it.

"The traitor isn't present, but his blood his right there beside you."

Raimundo looked down at Jeremy. The book shook slightly; his pale face drained of what little color it had. Raimundo winced and placed a hand on the top of the boy's head.

"I'm scared…" the boy murmured.

"Don't be…" Kimiko mutter from beside Raimundo.

"Spicer belongs to us."

The words shook through their bodies. Raimundo looked down at the boy.

"Please don't make me…"

He didn't want to. He turned to Dojo hoping to find a loophole, but there was none. If one warrior is incapacitated, another can stand in his place, but they must be blood or kin and in that event, they must fight for the side the missing party was meant to fight for. Jeremy had to fight where Jack had aligned himself.

"I'm sorry…" Raimundo murmured.

"But… Jack said… Jack said he wanted to fight with you guys…"

"But he couldn't and you can't. I… I'm sorry, Jeremy… I'm…" Raimundo fell silent when the boy pulled away from him and crossed the field.

"Why do you need him?" he shouted across the field, "He's just a child!"

"It's the rules, boy. We must follow them to the T."

"Well, now we're clearly out-numbered. You of all people, Chase, believe in a certain level of fairness…"

"Then dispose of him quickly," Chase hissed.

A barrier appeared to the south and cut behind each of the two teams. Instead of meeting up on the northern side, the land crumbled away to reveal a sheer cliff. Water flowed in from nowhere; sharp rocks and raging rapids awaited anyone who fell over the cliff's edge. Rocks grew up from the ground and scattered themselves around the field. Two large plateaus grew up beneath the feet of both sides. The Wu from within both their satchels came form the bags and flew about the field landing all over around the rocks; hidden from everyone's sight.

Tension soared on the side of the Xiaolin. Adrenaline coursed through their veins. It was about to begin: the final fight for their freedom.

"You ready to get your butt kicked, Chase?" the girl beside him hollered.

Chase chuckled and took his stance, "Are you?"


	20. Showdown Royale pt 2

**A/N: **Okay, you're lucky. I'm on a roll. I have an essay that I should have been doing instead of this, but I figured that I'd get this out of the way first. If you were one of the first people to read the last chapter, it's changed since then. I edited the Heylin side to include a few more characters, my bad in forgetting them. Okay, this chapter just deals with getting rid of the fluff. After this, the real shit starts. Sorry to say, I'm not the best action writer. I'm more of an emotional person. But no worries folks, if you're here for angst and torture, you're in the right place. Just grin and bare it with this fighting shit, it'll all be over soon...

* * *

And so it began.

Two sides rushed at one another with the full intent of destroying their opponents.

"I'm going for the Golden Tiger Claws and the Sword of the Storm. Kimiko, go for the Star Hannabi and the Shroud of Shadows. Clay, find the Third Arm Sash and the Fist of Tebbigong. Jermaine, get what you can. Omi," Raimundo looked down at the smallest of the monks as he dished out his orders, "Orb of Tornami and whatever else you can find."

"Oh, I see, Raimundo. You are entrusting me with my own integrity to decide upon which Wu would best suite my expertise," Omi smiled.

"Yeah, Omi, that's exactly it…"

With that they split up and darted out into the field.

The Heylin side said nothing amongst themselves and simply dashed out to stop the Xiaolin monks from obtaining any of the Wu in their own unique manners. However, Hannibal, Chase, and Wuya stood back, waiting for the proper time launch their own attacks. Behind them sat the frightened figure of Jeremy Spicer. Sitting on top of the Heylin plateau, he pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in them. He heard the fighting around him and he tried so hard to block it out, but it was impossible. He peeked out over his knees just in time to catch a glimpse of something he thought would come in handy. Behind one of the rocks he spotted a folded up blanket. Looking around to make sure no one else was near it and that the other Heylin warriors that remained with him on the plateau were well enough distracted to not notice him missing, he slid off the edge of the plateau and made a mad dash for the blanket. Just as he reached it, the Xiaolin girl appeared on top of the rock behind which the sheet was laying. She saw Jeremy slowly lift the shroud from the ground and pull it gently up to his chin. She sighed as she saw the fear that had filled his violet eyes. He reached out with the artifact to hand it to her, but she declined.

"No, you keep it. You need it more than I do."

Jeremy nodded and flung the Shroud of Shadows over his head. Invisible now, he watched the girl dash off to another rock.

Raimundo faced off with PandaBubba. The crime ring boss was an easy warm up for a warrior such as himself. Wielding the Jetbutsu, the squat man tried to dodge Raimundo until the boy finally wore out, but he had no idea how resilient the monks truly were. Once Raimundo caught on to the boss's tactics, he feigned exhaustion in order to bring him down to his level. As soon as the pathetic excuse for a villain landed to face him, Raimundo grabbed his arm and flipped his stocky form over his head, landing him flat on his back behind him. In the process her heard the sickening sound of bones snapping in the short, but thick arm. PandaBubbe scrambled to his feet clutching his arm. He hissed at Raimundo and just as he was about to make another move, he faded away before the monk's eyes. Turning frantically in search of his opponent, he found the crime boss sitting on the out side of the barrier beside Dojo who only snickered at his presence.

"What happened?" Raimundo shouted to the dragon.

"Once you can no longer fight, which in this poor slob's case didn't take much, you are removed from the battle field," the dragon explained.

"Then how did you get kicked out?"

"I was never in. I can't fight with you guys. Guardians can't fight. Sorry 'bout that…"

"Probably better that way," Raimundo muttered as he dashed off in search of another opponent.

"What was that?!" Dojo shouted, but Raimundo couldn't hear him.

The next to be removed from the battle was Vlad. Jermaine targeted the Russian man because he seemed like a quick and easy fight. It started out simple enough until the larger man stumbled upon the Lasso Boa-Boa. Lashing it out at him, it suddenly became a trick for the young man to avoid being caught by the deadly lasso. He knew it would crush him if it got the chance. Eventually, it snared him. Dragging the boy in to his opponent, Jermaine gazed with fury into the dim-witted eyes of the evil merchant. He laughed stupidly as the lasso tightened around Jermaine's waist. He was being crushed to death. He began to feel himself fade and in one last movement of desperation, the dark-skinned boy landed a foot between the larger man's legs. Collapsing to the ground, Vlad's Wu released Jermaine who promptly took to kicking his foe into submission. Outside the barrier and beside PandaBubba appeared the haggard from of the defeated Vlad lying on the ground still clutching his crotch.

Next up was Tubbimura. Facing off against the Texan monk, the supposed samurai really didn't stand a chance. Clay moved first with the Third Arm Sash. His attack was deflected by the Two-Ton Tunic that the fat man was wearing. IN the time he spent laughing at his amazing reflexes, Clay jumped over his head and planted a hit with the Fist of Tebbigong right on his tiny head. Falling to his squat knees, Clay reached out to him with the Third Arm Sash once more. This time the Wu made its mark. Wrapping itself around the larger man's girth, it lifted him into the air and began swinging him around over Clay's head. Tubbimura was spun around until the sash finally released him and flung the dead weight of his body right against the barrier. In his dizzy stupor, Tubbimura collapsed backwards and out of the battle ground.

LeMime stood before Omi. He was bent over as though they were dueling with pistols. Omi only gawked for a minute that the strange stance his opponent had taken.

"Do not think that you can fool me like you did the first time we met, Mime! You are a cowardly foe who uses backwards tactics to avoid fighting all together. I am ashamed to be the one who forces you out of battle. You are hardly an opponent worth my time."

As Omi spoke, LeMime rolled his eyes and began packaging Omi in an invisible box.

"I am too quick and agile to fall into your magical traps. There is no way you will trap me this time!"

As soon as he was finished, so was LeMime. Leaning once more on nothing, he stared at Omi with a crooked smile.

"You mock me with your silence?"

LeMime shook his head.

"Prepare to be defeated!"

Omi made an attempt to lunge at the Mime, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier.

"What?! But… How?" his cheeks burned as he realized he had just fell into the trap he swore he wouldn't fall into.

To answer him, the mime stood up straight and mocked him by pretending to be talking. He raised a finger and waved it at the poor monk then covered his mouth to stifle silent laughter.

Omi's pride had been injured and the mime would pay for it. He sat in silence as he struggled to remember how he could get out of the mess he was currently in. And then it came to him. Closing his eyes, he pictured that the box around him would release him and instead retain the mime that created it.

LeMime's silent laughing fit came to an end as he was suddenly knocked to the ground. His legs were forced up against his chest and his body was doubled over. The taller man was contained in a box that was meant to only fit Omi. Standing tall, Omi looked down at the caged mime who only smiled sheepishly back at him.

"See? I told you that you could not defeat me!"

LeMime gave a constricted shrug and a light, silent chuckle before being removed from the battlefield.

Katnappe was soon to join LeMime on the exterior of the battlefield. Caring little for the battle at all, she turned to Kimiko and snarled:

"Just knock me out. I have no desire to be here. They totally dragged me away from a pedicure."

"Fine, I'd be happy to put you out of your misery," the Dragon of Fire snarled.

With a simple attack, Ashley was out of the game.

"Me-ow," she scoffed as she walked off.

"That was easy," Kimiko chuckled as she wiped her hands together.

"Yeah, but now there's this guy!" Raimundo shouted as he called her attention to Cyclops.

The behemoth had taken to firing the beam from his eye at random. The Xiaolin monks and Jermaine ran almost aimlessly around his ankles, trying to confuse the beast. When the one-eyed giant began to feel dizzy, it paused a moment to regain its balance then turned to the monks once more. They were scurrying away from him in every direction. Scowling in aggravation he shot after them.

Raimundo struggled to come up with a plan as he ran. If Cyclops was this hard on them, they stood no chance against Chase and the rest. They had to bring him down; after all, the larger they are… And then it came to him.

"Find the Changing Chopsticks and Reversing Mirror!" he shouted to anyone who could hear him.

Kimiko nodded briefly in response and ran off in search of the elusive sticks.

Off in the distance, Jeremy heard Raimundo's call and peeked out form behind his rock. He saw that they were all scrambling about to find the Wu in demand.

"I'm enjoying their scrambling about much too much to let them end it so quickly," he heard Chase mumble to the others.

Jeremy turned to find the lizard man scanning the battlefield. His eyes were much sharper than his own so he waited until he saw a spark of delight in them.

"Well, there's the Reversing Mirror," he grinned.

Jeremy looked in the direction Chase was gazing. Seeing the Wu for himself, he made a mad dash for it on his own.

Chase saw the young Spicer's move and snarled as he leapt after him.

Jeremy knew the Heylin warlord was chasing him and that he stood no chance, but he had to try to keep the mirror from Chase Young.

In the corner of his eye, Clay saw Jeremy darting after the mirror with Chase right on top of him. His eyes widened as he watched Chase shift into his lizard form. Leaping at Jeremy, he knocked the boy to the ground.

"Foolish child, how dare you think you can defy me."

Raising his claw in the air to strike down on the Spicer child, Dojo called into the field.

"Now, now, Chase," the Heylin monk snarled back at the tiny dragon, "No team-killing and you know it! Especially in the case of teammates under the age of twenty-one…"

Looking down at the boy who was to be his prey, he snarled and leapt off the collapsed body. He landed just before Jeremy's head and turned back into his human form. As he went to walk away, Jeremy reached out and grabbed his ankle. Chase Young, the great Heylin warrior, collapsed face first into the dry earth. Clay took this opportunity to snag the Reversing Mirror. He turned to wink at Jeremy, but Chase had recovered and had already kicked Jeremy across the field. Wincing with the solid thud the boy's body n the ground, Clay turned to run back to Raimundo.

"I found the sticks!" Kimiko yelled.

"Hit me, Kimiko!" Clay yelled as he changed his direction to her.

"Changing Chopsticks!"

"Reversing Mirror!"

A beam lashed out from the chopsticks and collided with the mirror. Instead of being reflected, which is what a normal mirror would do, it reversed the power of the Wu itself. Instead of being reduced to the size of a grain of rice, Clay became a giant like Cyclops himself. He had to dodge the eye beam once before planting the Fist of Tebbigong right in Cyclops' eye. After that, the great monster was felled by a gust from the Sword of the Storm and then hog-tied by the Third Arm Sash. It began to cry at its own defeat, but soon enough, Cyclops joined the other fallen Heylin creeps on the outside of the barrier.

Recovering from the shame of being tripped by a child, Chase turned to the Xiaolin side that remained at full strength.

"I have to thank you for eliminating those useless fools. Now we can finally get serious."

Wuya and Hannibal joined him at the base of the plateau. A wicked grin crossed the Heylin lord's thin lips.

Far away in a city that lay an ocean away from the battlefield, the battle waged on a mounted television set in sterile hospital room. A nurse walked in to find the TV blaring but the curtain around the patient was closed. She sighed and turned what she thought was a fictional conflict off. She chuckled lightly. _Kids and their violence_, she thought to herself.

"Alright," she checked the folder in the door file, "Jack, it's time for your check-up…"

As she said these words she threw the curtain back only to find an empty bed with ruffled sheets. She gasped slightly and checked the chart once more. There was no way this boy could have gotten out of the hospital, not without being spotted. He was fresh from surgery and the stitches in his stomach wouldn't be able to withhold a lot of stress. Looking around wildly for a clue as to where the boy had gone, she found an open, or rather, broken, window on the far side of the room. A piece of bedclothes was caught on a shard of broken glass still stuck in the window pane. Thinking she'd find a corpse lying at the bottom of the building, she looked out the window. Nothing. No corpse, no discarded clothes, and no bloody pool lay at the bottom of the four-story drop. Jack Spicer was gone, and there was no telling where he went.


	21. Showdown Finale

**A/N:** 3 am... Sorry 'bout that... I had to take it down quick... But its back up again... Remembered something I meant to put in... Glad I caught it before anyone read it... Well, this is the end of the battle. I'm sorry if it seems a bit anti-climactic. The past few chapters were the only times in my entire life that I had to write an outline for the plot... I must say, it was mighty humbling to have to organize my thoughts before diving into a story. I just hope it lives up to your expectations. Enjoy! Only one chapter left...

* * *

A sickly calm fell over the battlefield. From the bright-blue heavens came a gust of hot air. Dust was kicked up form the parched earth and managed to fill every crevice in the sweaty bodies that stood upon it. In the silence, Jeremy Spicer regained his balance. Leaning on a rock to help him struggle to his feet, Jeremy looked down the field. The last three Heylin warriors stood before the four opposing Xiaolin monks and their ally. He was still new to this world of good and evil and he himself had never encountered the Heylin forces, but something told me that these last three warriors would be the hardest to defeat. In that instant, a feeling of shame and disappointment filled him. He wanted to help the warriors so badly, but he was just a kid. An unskilled, untrained, useless child. Sliding back to his knees, he crawled over to where Dojo sat near the field. 

"Dojo dragon," he said.

"Hm? What's up kid? You gonna get in there?"

"I-I'm scared…"

"You can't be scared. You won't get anywhere in life if you're always afraid."

"But…" the tears were welling up in his eyes, "I don't want to die…"

"'Die'? You can't die. Not in a Showdown…"

"Really?" the boy sniffed.

"Really, really. Goodness. There'd be no warriors if that were the case!"

"But… I don't want to fight for the creepy lizard man…"

Dojo sighed, "I'm sorry, kid, but the rules are the rules…"

"What happens…" he sniffed, "If I choose not to?"

"Well… You can always choose not to, but you can't attack anyone on the Heylin side…"

"Why not?"

"It's in the rules..."

"What happens if I do?"

Dojo opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it once more when he realized that he didn't honestly have an answer. Reaching into the pocket he didn't have, the dragon pulled out a tattered book. Flipping through the pages, he came to the chapter on the Showdown Royale. He scanned the pages until he found the answer he was looking for.

"Says here that if you turn on the team, any wounds inflicted by your own team are retained. Mortality is an issue."

"Huh?"

"Remember how I said you can't die in a Showdown?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, in this case, that only applies to you as long as you're fighting for your assigned alliance."

"Umm…"

Dojo sighed heavily.

"If you are supposed to fight for the Heylin and you fight only the Xiaolin, any wounds inflicted by your opponents disappear once you are removed from battle. Now, let's say you're fighting for the Heylin and you choose to turn on them. Any wounds inflicted from that point on are retained. Basically, you can only be injured in friendly fire, and I use the term 'friendly' lightly. It means that if someone on your team breaks your arm, it stays broken. The same is true for if you did it to them. In the event that you…" he didn't want to say it, "die…"

"I stay dead?"

"Yeah," Dojo choked as he closed the pages of the book.

Jeremy sat a moment in silence. His mind weighed in his options. He could risk dying and fight for the good guys, or he could just stay out of it all together. No. He couldn't do that… He couldn't just sit around and watch them fight. Even if he was no help, he had to try… he had to… If anything… He had to do it for his brother… For Jack… A dull pain filled the boy's chest as he remembered how he had left his brother lying in a hospital bed. Tears welled up in his eyes and the world around him became blurry as his senses sank into a numb state of emptiness. What if… What if Jack was dead now? What if he was gone? Loneliness filled Jeremy. It would be all his fault if Jack died… Leaning against the barrier, he collapsed on his side and pulled his knees into his chest.

"Please watch over me, Jack," he wept quietly into his black coat, "Wherever you are, watch over me… Please… I need you…"

All around him the battle raged on, but Jeremy remained alone. Dojo stayed near the boy. He knew there was nothing he could do to help, besides simply staying near the poor boy.

Yells and screams crossed the rocky field. With every shout, Jeremy's body shuddered in fear.

The shrill scream of a girl's voice riled the poor boy's frame. Snapping out of his daze, Jeremy whipped around to find a rather gruesome scene. In one of the bean's tentacles was the neck of the Japanese girl. The plant's appendage was tightening its hold around her air ways. Beneath her kicking feet stood the Brazilian boy in utter terror. He tried to jump to reach her legs, but the mutated bean held her too high over his head. Laughter boomed from the evil fruit's crooked jaws. Jeremy looked to see who would aide the boy and the girl only to find the smallest of the monks in an energy field constructed by the Heylin witch. Finally, the cowboy and the dark skinned boy made a combined move to attack the warlord, but their efforts were deflected, sending them soaring across the field much like Jeremy had done before them. Seeing an opening, Chase made a dash for Raimundo. Jeremy jumped to his feet and made a mad dash to knock the boy out of the way of the charging evil. Building up his momentum, he instead careened into the bean who lost his balance and released the girl from his grasp. Falling on top of the boy beneath her, they were both open to Chase's attack. Dashing between them and Chase's reptilian form, Jeremy stood ready to accept the onslaught on his own.

It was in that instant, that he arrived. Walking in from the distance, Dojo was first to hear the ragged footsteps. Turning away from the perilous fight, the dragon saw the last thing he had expected to see. The red hair burned in the high sun and the black figure as a whole was distorted by waves of heat bending the sun's rays. Dojo froze as the figure approached. It was a stiff and lifeless march that ended beside the dragon.

"Jeremy…" the pale white lips moved.

"Jack?"

"I… I need to help him…"

"You can't fight, Jack…"

"I have to…"

"But you can't. According to the rules, people can't just walk in…"

"He's going to die…"

"You would too. You're in no shape to fight any of them…"

"Let me… Let me take his pain…"

Dojo looked up at the boy, but his hair lay limply over his goggles casting shadows over his eyes.

"You knew about that, huh?"

"Let me…" Jack reached out for the barrier, "Take his pain…"

Jeremy turned just in time to see his brother reaching out to him.

Dojo sighed and invoked the spell.

Chase's maw opened to snap down on Jeremy's tiny form, but instead, his fangs sank into something entirely different. His eyes looked down his snout to find a ball of fiery red hair resting beside his jaws. He bit harder into the shoulder causing blood to seep out of the wounds staining the dark coat he was wearing. His head was downcast until the pain finally registered with his broken body. Turning slowly to see Chase's mouth around his shoulder, a small shudder wracked the red-head's body. His eyes narrowing, Chase released the shoulder just to bite down again on it once more. Jack flinched this time, but his red eyes turned their gaze on Chase's reptilian slits. A small laugh came from Chase, but it was stifled by his full mouth.

"You wanted to kill him…"

Chase scoffed as he released the child. As the teeth pulled from their respective wounds, stains of blood followed them. Jack's body arched back as he was lifted lightly from the ground only to fall to his knees in numb pain.

"So you'll die instead?" Chase laughed.

"Someone has to…"

The lizard grinned as best as a lizard can, "Indeed."

"JACK!" Jeremy screamed from outside the barrier, "Dojo, what happened?" he shouted frantically, "Why am I here?"

"It's in the rules… Blood can replace blood. Not just any blood, mind you, but a kin can take the place of a warrior in this battle. That's how you got into this in the first place…"

"Oh, Jack…" he whispered slowly, "Don't die…"

His brother's screams were only faint sounds in the back of his mind. The blood pouring out of his shoulder only made him more aware of the fresh stitches in his stomach. They wouldn't hold out much longer, but he wasn't going to pop them lying down. Clutching his shoulder, he struggled to his feet once more.

"NO JACK, NO!!! PLEASE, JACK!" Jeremy screamed until he became hoarse and his head became light and empty.

As Chase laughed at his misfortune and licked the Spicer's blood from his maw just to force salt into the wound. All the while, Jack studied the terrain in search of something he could use against the monster. There, near the bean that now held two monks, the Japanese girl and the Brazilian boy, in its grasps, laid Chase's spear. Following Jack's gaze, Hannibal found the same object.

"Oh no you don't," he spat as he saw Jack's muscles tighten for the sprint.

Hannibal sprouted and extra root that he shot after the spear, but Jack made his move. He beat the monstrous frond to the weapon and made a dive to snag it in his hands and rolled promptly out of the way of the bean's root. It was lucky that it missed him; with the speed it had accumulated, a small crater was formed where it impacted with the ground. Jack smiled at his amazing reflexes and attributed it to the morphine in his blood.

"JACK! BEHIND YOU!"

Jack turned at the sound of his brother's voice. Another frond was after him. Ducking beneath it, he raised the spear, severing it from the rest of the bean's form. A terrible bellow filled the air around the battlefield. Hannibal released the monks once more and they made their retaliation against him.

It was with that final move that Jack felt his flesh separate from itself. His stitches popped beneath his shirt and the blood began to flow again. Even the internal sutures were released. Not only was he bleeding out, but he was bleeding in to his own body. He coughed and sputtered with the strain he had put forth only to find blood accompanying his discarded saliva. Looking down at the droplets of blood that fell from the bottom of his coat, he gave a forlorn sigh followed by a defeated chuckle.

But he had no time to dwell on his own pain. Chase was after him once more. The blood trickled out of his mouth, over his lips, and down his pale chin. It was over, but he wasn't going down without a fight. Shedding his blood-soaked coat, he turned one last time to his foe; his blood still staining the black t-shirt he wore beneath the coat.

Chase gave it his all. He wanted to feel the boy's body crushed once more between his jaws, but no such thing happened. A sharp pain wracked his monstrous form; something had forced its way into his flesh. Looking down, he found his own spear lodged in his rib cage. On the other end of the spear stood the blood-soaked form of Jack Spicer. Chase's own blood dribbled down the shaft of the spear and on to Jack's arm, mingling with his own hot, red blood. It was satisfying enough for Jack that he brought the arm with Chase's blood on it to his lips and lapped up the mixture of his and the reptile's blood. Chase sank further onto the spear until it penetrated his back. Jack smirked and used the last of his strength to force the butt of the spear into the ground beside him. Stepping back, he confirmed his work with a grim smile.

"That's it… then…" Chase murmured as his reptilian guise faded and his human form remained on the end of his spear.

Chase Young, skewered by his own weapon, died on its bloody shaft; his lifeless body continued to travel down the propped-up shaft.

Pain wracked the older Spicer's body. His legs became weak and he collapsed in a dizzy lump on the hard ground. Resting on his side, the faint, ragged breaths began to slow until they faded all together. A bloody pool formed around his unconscious form.

The field was silent. The individual conflicts had come to a momentary halt. The same warm breeze from before came down from the heavens and washed over their bodies, cooling the sweat that drenched the mortal forms of the monks. The red hair danced lifelessly in that very same breeze.

"No…" Jeremy whispered in silent pain.

Death. Death was a powerful tool. Turning from the pale body on the ground, to the living blood on the other side of the barrier, a spark filled the body of the Xiaolin leader. Anger filled his body as he watched the tears stream down the child's cheeks; tears mourning the loss of the only person he had in his entire life. With a powerful roar, Raimundo slammed his naked fist into the body of the bean, knocking it to the ground where he promptly smashed his foot into its face.

Wuya was the last warrior standing on the Heylin side. A snarl crossed her lips. Clenching her clawed hands at her side, her body was engulfed with a green flame. Her body floated into the air as she prepared for the attack that was to end it all. Coiling in on herself, she charged her every muscle for the grand attack. Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten about the smallest of the monks. Omi jumped up into her fire ring and wrapped his small and around her ankle. Startled, Wuya released her attack prematurely. The only one injured, was herself. The charred form of the Heylin witch joined Hannibal on the exterior of the battlefield.

And that was it. The battle was over. Good had triumphed over evil. They should have been happy, had it not been for the casualties. Once the powers that be registered the Xiaolin victory, the Wu gathered themselves up and were placed in a sack beside Dojo. The sea retreated and the dry land returned once more. The plateaus went back into the earth along with the rocks that had been scattered about the terrain. Soon enough, everything was back to as it had always been. Finally, the barrier itself faded away.

Jeremy staggered to his feet as he made his feeble way across the field to his brother's body.

"Jack…" his voice shook as he wept, "Oh, Jack…" he gasped as he came upon Jack's broken form, "I'm so sorry…"

His legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees beside his only brother. The man who had raised him, who had given him everything he had, made him who he was… That man was gone… Bending forwards, he rested his tired head on the empty chest and wept into his brother's blood-stained shirt.

"Oh, Jack…" he murmured as exhaustion washed over him. It was all so overwhelming…

Dojo slithered over to the body and made a few checks before turning to the others with wild eyes.

"He's still alive…" he spat hastily.

"But… How?!" Kimiko gasped, "There's so much… blood…"

"Who knows? Let's not question it and just get him out of here," the dragon spoke hastily as he turned into his larger self.

Raimundo reached down to lift Jeremy off his brother's body.

"Come on, Jeremy," he spoke to the unconscious boy, "Come on…"

The body was limp and that scared the young man. He lifted Jeremy's limp body into his arms while Clay came over and gently lifted Jack into his own arms.

"He's gone…" Jeremy whispered weakly into Raimundo's shirt.

"There's still hope, kid… Just… Just hang on to it, okay?"

Jeremy nodded slowly as he sank back into unconsciousness.

"Stay with me… Jack… I love you…"

Once they were all on the dragon's back, they took off into the sky to return to the Xiaolin temple. Beneath them, Wuya and Hannibal released Chase's body from the hold of his own sacred weapon. Looking up in disgust, the remaining evils vowed that they would have their day... One day... One day, they'd take it all back from the forces of good...

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**A/N:** Me again! So what do _you_ think? Am I gonna kill him? I know what I'm doing, but do you? Five bucks says no matter what you think, you'll never guess the exact ending. I'll give you a cookie if you do... 


	22. Raising Jackie

**A/N:** Well, here it is. The last installment to Raising Jackie. It should explain why I called it that instead of Raising Jeremy as some people have pointed out. Anyway, I think it starts out a bit choppy, but please just struggle through it. The ending turned out _almost_ as good as I envisioned it, but oh well, nothing is perfect.

* * *

Days crept on in silent mourning. The red-haired boy wasn't dead yet, but the chances of his ruby orbs ever shining in this world again were slim. He laid on his back taking raspy, shallow breaths that were audible to anyone who passed by. It wracked and unnerved the living inhabitants of the temple. Everyone went out of their way to avoid seeing the unconscious form lying in the spare quarters in the temple's living establishment. Everyone except Jeremy Spicer. 

Jeremy always visited his brother. If nothing else, he felt that talking to him would help. Help who? He wasn't sure. Maybe it was to relieve his own pains and fears, or maybe it was to help Jack relieve his own. His brother never answered back, he had never expected him to. But one day, there was nothing left to say. Instead of talking away toe uncomfortable nature of the situation, Jeremy just sat on the floor beside his brother's broken form. He sighed and rubbed his eyes as they darted about the room. Hanging on the wall across from him was Jack's tattered coat. Jeremy sighed at how the Showdowns based his own guise on that of his brothers. _Blood is blood…_ Jeremy thought. To powers as strong as those that govern the battlefields of the Shen Gong Wu, they may as well have been the same person. Jeremy struggled to stand up from the floor as a weak moan came from his lips. He'd mend Jack's coat… Yes that would pass the idle hours…

Days became weeks and Jack showed no sign of ever waking up. His body began rejecting the food that was forcibly feed into his system. He'd cough and choke on his own acid and bile. It was times like that that made Jeremy wish that his brother would either wake up and miraculously jump to his feet with a smile on his lips that said "I missed you" or finally pass on and leave this world in search of greener pastures. Jeremy hoped that his brother would live, as would any child who was on the brink of losing the only family he or she truly had. But deep down, Jeremy felt a little selfish and sickened by his desire for his brother to wake up, if only to hug him one more time. No, Jack wanted to sleep. That was all he wanted to do. Jeremy never really knew, but he got the strongest feeling that his brother's life had been a living hell before he came along. Jack rarely spoke of his life before Jeremy. It was like Jeremy's birth was Jack's own. With that event, Jack was willing to give life another stab, but like his past, it became a mess.

The last time Jeremy saw his brother, he was returning the mended coat to his room.

"I fixed it for you," he murmured to no one.

He sighed and waited for a response, but when he got nothing, he simply hung the coat back up on the wall. Turning back to his brother, he became desperate to talk to him once more.

"When are you going to wake up, Jack? Or if not wake up, then how long do you plan on being a vegetable? Please, for all our sakes, make up your mind. It would be nice if you could find it in your heart to come back so you can take care of me, but if you can't do that anymore, then know that I'm safe here with the dragons. I'm sure they'll help me until I can stand on my own two feet. Either way, Jack, you're my brother. I'm…" he choked a bit, "I'm sorry for being so ungrateful… I'm sorry I took you for granted… I never knew how lonely it would be without you simply existing nearby. Please, Jack, either die or come back to me. I can't stand looking at you like this anymore!" The tears began to flow, "Please…"

Jeremy sat on his knees and leaned on his poor head on Jack's chest.

"Just don't leave me…" he whimpered, "Stay with me, even in death if you have to… just stay with me…"

Jeremy eventually cried himself to sleep on his brother's chest. It wasn't until late that Raimundo passed the room and found Jeremy lying in an uncomfortable position across Jack's unconscious form. Raimundo simply sighed and walked on. He stopped suddenly when he heard his name being called. He turned and wandered back to the Spicer brothers. He opened the curtain slowly to find the last thing he had expected. Jack was awake and sitting up with his younger brother resting peacefully in his lap.

"Jack!" Raimundo shouted in sheer surprise.

"Shh…" was all the redhead said.

"Oh," Raimundo looked down at Jeremy, "Jack," he whispered, "You're… alive!"

"I suppose…"

Jack winced as the pain came flooding back to him. His hand reached under his sheets and grasped at his bandages.

"Do me a favor, Rai?"

"Sure, Jack, what is it?"

"Get him out of here," Jack said softly as he looked down at his sleeping brother, "He needs his rest."

Raimundo smiled and nodded as he walked in to take Jeremy up in his arms.

"Thanks," Jack forced a pathetic grin.

Raimundo was walking away when he called after him again.

"Rai?"

Raimundo looked in passed the curtain, "Yes?"

"Tell him…" Jack squeezed his eyes shut to force the pain back, "Tell him I'm sorry."

"For what?" Raimundo asked as he shifted the weight of Jeremy's body in his arms.

"For everything."

"That sounds like a cop-out for something, Jack," Rai mumbled, "You're a good big brother and you know it…"

"But… What good is being a good big brother when my little brother doesn't need me anymore?"

"He's just a kid, Jack! He still needs you and as his brother, he'll always need you!"

"No. I'm too dysfunctional to really care for him. Rai, I tried to kill myself… and I failed! Miserably… I can't even do that…"

"Then maybe you're meant to live, hm? Ever think of that? Maybe you _have_ to live on and care for this kid," Rai lifted Jeremy in his arms, "That ever cross your mind?"

Jack was silent a moment before saying, "I can't," in a barely audible tone.

"You can't or you won't, Jack? It's one or the other. Very simple."

"Rai," he choked, "I can't even care for myself right now… I can't have someone depending on me when I can't even stand on my own two feet…"

"Then what, Jack? You gonna abandon him?"

"Could you watch him for me?"

"Not if you're gonna try and kill yourself again…"

"No… I think I'm done bothering with that. If I was going to die," he chuckled lightly, "I would have done it a long time ago…"

"Then what do you plan on doing?"

"I-I don't honestly know… Get out of here, for starters…"

"Then what?"

"Then, I guess I'll just try to figure things out…"

"You ever gonna come back?"

Jack honestly thought about the question.

"Yes," he said finally, "I have to," he pointed up at Jeremy, "My little brother will still need me."

An honest grin crossed his lips and Raimundo chuckled silently to himself.

"Then go, Jack. No one will stop you. But you have to promise that you'll come back for Jeremy someday, we can't keep him here forever, you know…"

"I do and I will."

"Some time out will be good for you, Jack," Raimundo called down the hall as he walked off, "Just don't do anything stupid…"

When Jeremy went to visit his brother the next day he found the bed empty and the mended coat gone. Fear filled him. Had Jack finally died and the monks took his body away? Jeremy stood shaking with fear until he looked down once more at the empty bed. On it sat a folded piece of paper with his name on it.

"Jack?" he mumbled as he knelt down to pick the paper up.

_Hey, Jerm_, he read, _Sorry about how things turned out. Guess I should start by saying that I'm alive, thanks to you. I heard what you said… I heard all of it. I'm sorry I put you through so much crap, but I'm not sorry for being your brother and I hope you aren't either. That's what we are, Jerm, we're brothers and we always will be. All these years I thought I was raising someone I had hoped would be my friend, but we're so much more and I know that now. I thought that all I was doing was giving you a chance at life, but it was really you who gave me the chance. All along, you were a resilient kid. Strong, smart, kind, and caring… So many qualities that I don't even have. You didn't need me, Jerm, and I'm not just saying that. It was _I_ that needed you… _You_ were the one doing the teaching. _You_ were the one doing the raising. Before you, I knew nothing. I _was_ nothing. But you gave my pitiful life a purpose, no more than that, a second chance at being a success… at being _someone_. When I though things couldn't get worse you made everything better. When I thought the loneliness would never end, you were there. You helped me see so much more in life than my tinted view would let me. So… Thanks, Jeremy, for helping me grow up. I couldn't have done it without you. But it seems that I still have some growing to do. Growing that I have to do on my own. Please don't see it as neglect, I told Raimundo that I'd come back for you and that's exactly what I plan on doing, but right now, you truly are better off with them. I need to get my own life in alignment before I can ever hope to take care of you again. I hope you understand… I'll be back Jeremy, you can count on it._

_I make it a policy to never say 'goodbye' because that means forever so I'll simply say this:_

_Later, Kid…_

And that was it. In a way, Jeremy was happier holding the note in his hand than if he had spoken to Jack himself. It still left him a without any consolation, but he didn't need any. His brother would be back. He had the words in black in white clutched tightly in his hand

"Well, then, Jack," he said aloud in the empty room, "As long as you promise to come back, take all the time you need…"

**_Fin_**

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**A/N:** Thanks again for sticking with it! I know it's been a long arduous process of getting this thing done, but I hope you all at least enjoyed it because I really did enjoy writing it. Now that it's over I'm left with a lonely sinking feeling mixed with emense joy that I finally got that last bit up for everyone to read. Again, bit thanks for dealing with the lags, I feel loved by the amount of people who keep coming back **_sniff_ **I love you guys soooooo much!!!! Because without you, I never would have finished this fic!!! I dedicate it to all those poor individuals who have been waiting patiently for this crappy ending!!!! Meh... It's finals week and I'm stressed so just take my love or leave it. I really don't care lol. Peace out, ya'll! 

**P.S: **(for anyone who got the whiff of a sequel) Maybe someday. I think I'm giving up on my sequel to "Jack." But this story may be worth the time to come back to in the future. I have no idea how tha Xiaolin Showdown fandom is currently doing so we'll see. I may just writing somehting just for S and G's... but that's just how I am. So, keep your eyes peeled for a potential sequel, but please, for everyon's sake, don't hold your breath!!!!


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